Fifth in a series of seven.

Part 1: Shortstop Taylor Hoke (Feb. 16, 2015)
Part 2: First Baseman Emily Osborn (Feb. 24, 2015)Part 4: Pitcher Mary Grace Bywater (March 20, 2015)

MSUB SPORTS – Growing up in Hardin, Mont., Jessica Campbell's first softball memories stem from watching her father play in a slow pitch league growing up.
 
"He could hit the ball so hard," Campbell said with a smile.
 
It was through Keith Campbell's early guidance that his daughter developed an interest for the sport, and when he began to coach her it further solidified their father-daughter relationship. "Having my dad as my coach not only helped us bond, but it helped me become a stronger person," Campbell said. "I never settled for mediocre, and I strived to be the best that I could be. My dad helped me emphasize that from the beginning of my softball and academic career."
 
Now a senior on the Montana State University Billings softball team, Campbell has lived by her father's early guidance throughout her career and reflected his core values onto everyone she has ever called a teammate.
 
Campbell has spent the last four years honing her craft as a drop ball pitcher for the Yellowjackets, while pursuing a degree in pre-physical therapy. The career choice makes sense for someone who cannot be brought up in conversation without the phrase "genuine kindness and caring" being simultaneously thrown out.
 
Along the way, she has been impacted by many role models, from Robert "Doc" Whiting who taught her the first grips and spins she ever used to one of her childhood idols Sarah DeVore who pitched at the University of Great Falls.
 
As she closes her softball career during the 2015 season, it will be the way she has impacted those who are closest to her that she will carry on as her most valuable trait.
 
PITCH DOCTOR
 
From what he can remember, Keith Campbell started coaching his daughter when pitching wasn't even a true position on the field. "I coached her starting in tee-ball all the way up through when she signed at MSUB," he said.
 
As Campbell developed on the field and experimented with different positions, the idea of becoming a pitcher grabbed her attention. After indicating her interest to step into the circle to her father, it was at one of her brother's baseball games that she took the first step towards the plate.
 
"I saw Doc Whiting pitching with another guy over on the field next to us, and my dad encouraged me to go talk to him," Campbell remembered about the local pitching guru in Hardin. "I ran over there and told him I was interested in learning and he was more than willing to help me out. He taught me the fundamentals; how to hold the ball and how to have good form."
 
Under Whiting's tutelage, Campbell grew into a dual threat as an infielder and crafty right-hander on her father's summer travel ball teams. Entering the high school ranks at Hardin High, Campbell morphed from a second baseman to a shortstop/pitcher by her junior season. By her final prep campaign, she was pitching every game and helped lead the Bulldogs to a historic finish.
 

"My senior season was the second time that Hardin had ever made it to state, and we were the first team in our school's history to ever win a game at state," Campbell remembered. "It was a really special moment, because there were seven or eight of us who had been playing together for as long as we could remember. We had dreamed about winning at state since we were little, so it was kind of a surreal moment when we went there and did it."
 
Campbell cited her high school coach Chris Reed as being a major influence on her progression as a player. "Chris always encouraged me and gave me the confidence to pursue my college career," Campbell said. "He still sends me gameday motivational text messages."
 
While the culmination of her prep career was better than Campbell could have remembered, the way it started four years earlier hinted at what her next step would be. During her freshman season at HHS, Campbell missed several games while recovering from a broken right hand. In one of her first games back on the diamond, she experienced one of the most futile, but memorable at bats of her life.
 
"We were playing Kasie Conder's team, and I remember stepping into the batter's box, her throwing three strikes, and I was out," Campbell said of her return after being injured as a 14-year-old. "It was my first experience facing Kasie and she was a senior who signed with MSUB that year. I was fascinated with how good she was."
 
The humbling experience batting inspired Campbell as a pitcher in a way, as she frequented Cenex Stadium on the MSU Billings campus to watch Conder and then-teammate Bekah (Tsatsa) Gasner pitch for the Yellowjackets. "I kind of just knew after watching those two play that pitching was my dream," Campbell said. "I wanted to come to Billings and be the player I had watched in high school and strived to be."
 
MAMA BEAR
 
"My first memory of my recruiting trip was that she was a very motherly figure. She was the first person to talk to me and show me around, and she really took me under her wing and made me feel comfortable." – Junior pitcher Amanda Roark on senior Jessica Campbell.
 
Fast-forward to April 13, 2013, when the Yellowjackets found themselves in a tough spot in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference home game against Saint Martin's. A steady rain had created unimaginable playing conditions, and pitchers for both teams were struggling to hold onto the ball let alone grip it and pitch effectively.
 
When her team needed someone to count on, Campbell stepped up and turned in a brave and memorable performance during her sophomore season. She battled through 3 1/3 innings, threw 87 pitches, and returned to the mound to finish the game after a rain delay before the seventh inning.
 
"We put Campbell in and she pitched like there was no rain at all," commented MSUB head coach Lisa Allen. "She was very mentally tough and that performance gave her the confidence she needed as a pitcher."
 
"Pitching in that game was the most impressive thing I have ever seen her do," commented fellow senior right-hander Mary Grace Bywater. "Most people would have found some sort of excuse of why they couldn't pitch in that weather. She stayed out there the whole time, toughed it out and did awesome."
 
Effectively remembered as the "Rain Game" by all those who were involved, Campbell's gritty performance was an early indicator of the way she would go on to face adversity throughout her career. It helped her develop confidence, and it built trust and garnered respect from all of her teammates.
 
The same year, Campbell was tested with an incredibly difficult sequence of events, as her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, her mother suffered a torn ACL, and her father was struck with kidney cancer all within the span of two months.
 
"I was shell shocked," Campbell said. "It was a lot for one person to handle, and on top of all that there was school and practice. I was trying to be a good teammate, friend and family member, but it was so hard to try to be in three places at once."
 

During perhaps the toughest time period of her life, Campbell's true colors were put on display as she battled confidently just as she did during the Rain Game. Campbell's teammates were there by her side when she needed them most, and she cited being a Yellowjacket as a big reason she was able to emerge from the trying experience as a stronger person.
 
"I am very blessed Boomer and Bekah were so understanding with the situation and were more than willing to help me out," Campbell said of her coaches. "It also made me closer with my teammates and I really looked to them as my support system. It was an experience that made them all my sisters instead of just my teammates."
 
Just as she had stared through the relentless rain, taking signs and throwing pitch after pitch on that stormy April afternoon, Campbell stood strong, supporting her family and holding belief that they were fighting a winning battle.
 
"Her dad is a die-hard softball fan," Allen said. "I remember him watching games from a Suburban in the parking lot when he was fighting cancer. He couldn't come out but he was still there watching."
 
Less than two years later, both Campbell's father and grandmother Rosie are cancer free. Campbell's mother Bridgette recovered from her devastating injury, and is another key role model who has always been there for her daughter. "My mom is the emotional support system for me, and she always knew what to say and how to comfort me," Campbell said.
 
In MSUB's home game against Saint Martin's last season, Keith Campbell was called upon to throw out the honorary first pitch in the Yellowjackets' Cancer Awareness Game, a moment that will forever stand out in Campbell's memory.
 
"Watching my dad go through what he did was really inspiring to me," Campbell said. "It taught me to not let the little things bother me now, and caused me to have a bigger picture of life."
 
"It meant a lot to me, and it was a special moment between me and her," Keith Campbell commented on throwing out the first pitch in MSUB's cancer game. "It reminded me of all the days I had spent coaching her in the driveway and driving back and forth to Billings year round for softball. It was a role reversal – instead of me catching for her, she caught one for me."
 
AROUND THE HORN
 
One of seven seniors for the Yellowjackets this season, Campbell has shared her college journey with teammates who have become her lifelong friends. Her two most immediate supports are in the circle in Bywater and Jessyka MacDonald, and senior catcher Brittney Sanders has been on the receiving end on the majority of their pitches along the way. Behind Campbell has been an outstanding core of infielders in shortstop Taylor Hoke, second baseman Aubrey Conceicao and first baseman Emily Osborn.
 
"The most comfortable feeling as a pitcher that you could possibly have is trusting fully in the people you have played together with for four years," Campbell said. "If I get a ground ball and turn around I know Taylor and Aubrey will be there in a specific spot. I always know Em will crash in for a bunt and grab it, and having a catcher like Brittney, I've thrown her everything and she's always framed it.
 
"Mac, MG and I have a special bond of friendship I don't think could have been created anywhere else," Campbell continued. "It is pretty powerful. We are pretty much inseparable."
 
Along with the connection to her teammates, Campbell also shares the title of MSUB student-athlete with her younger brother Cole Campbell, a sophomore on the Yellowjackets' track and field squad. "Cole and I wanted to stay close to our family, and

it is comforting knowing my brother is right here every day," Campbell said.
 
For family and teammates young and old alike, Campbell's presence as a role model stems for her determination and the confidence she has displayed no matter what life has thrown at her. Providing a constant reminder and guide each time she toes the rubber, are three simple words that Campbell's father imparted on her after her spirits were lowered her freshman season: Always Behave Confidently.
 
"I didn't have the season I wanted to and I was down, so my dad and I did a lot of mental training," Campbell said. "He tells me to practice my ABCs, and he wrote it in his handwriting on my glove."

Whether maintaining her grip through an intense downpour or providing stability for her family when it needed it most, Campbell's confidence has shone through brightest of all as an inspiration to all of those surrounding her.
 
A LIFE LESSON
 
Upon completing her career as a Yellowjacket and moving on to the next step towards becoming a physical therapist, Campbell's presence and the type of teammate she is will live on in the program more than anything else.
 
"If I could pass anything down it would just be for my teammates to be there for each other consistently," Campbell said. "How I treated people and how I made them feel means more to me than stats ever will."
 
Now the superintendent of Miles City Public Schools, Keith Campbell reflected on his purpose as a coach and some of the key principles he stressed to his players throughout the years.
 
Character, leadership, and being a good teammate stood out as some of the most important things he has taught as a coach.
 
Being able to overcome odds when things don't go well and being resilient are two that strike home with him personally.
 
"I didn't really find this out until the last few years watching Jessica, but I realized that I didn't truly believe any of those words myself even though I preached them as a coach," Keith Campbell said regarding the values he has taught throughout his career. "I know as a parent, I never believed in my own words, but there was one person listening to me all along, and it was Jessica."

Next: Part 6, Brittney Sanders, C