Mark Fischer has always been a strong proponent that football at Louisa County high is all about family. And for last half decade, one of the traditions that exemplifies that sentiment is Louisa County’s midnight madness practice. At the stroke of midnight on the very first day they’re allowed to open training camp, the Lions work through their first practice in front of friends and family, retire to the gym, sleep on the hardwood floors and then wake up not even five hours later and start a brand new practice.
“From day one we’ve always stressed family,” Fischer said. “That’s what we’re about — that we rely on one another — from years ago. It’s been our recurring theme.”
While football is still a big part of the community in Louisa, things are a little bit different for the Lions this year. Given what’s happened the last few weeks, the Lions’ motivation to take the field and practice no longer stems only from a desire to improve and build upon the previous season. This season took on a different tone when one of the team’s role players left a summer camp in Hampden-Sydney because of back pain and within days was diagnosed with leukemia.
Josh Campi, was struggling through the final stages of summer camp. When he came to Fischer to alert him about some nagging back pain, the coach told the senior not to worry and to take the next day off — if Campi was complaining it must be serious because the senior was known as one of the team’s stoics. He rarely complained about any injury or pain. A few hours later while sitting near the practice field, Campi came down with a nose bleed. It would not stop.
“I still can’t wrap my brain around what we went through that day,” Fischer said. “I can’t put words to it, but it made me really reflect on my life.”
Campi was rushed to the hospital in Farmville to get checked out. The immediate test results weren’t good, which prompted doctors to order an air-lift to the University of Virginia hospital.
In most humans, the usual white blood cell count in the body hovers around 150,000 to 450,000 per microliter of blood. Campi was nowhere near that mark and was hovering dangerously low, with a triple-digit platlet count according to school officials. Cancer had chewed away at those cells. He had leukemia.
With Campi facing a life-threatening disease, the community and football team immediately rallied to help in any way possible. At the little league state tournament in Mineral, donations for Campi’s looming medical bills were collected. Since his diagnosis, a caravan of players and friends have made their way to visit him in the hospital. Everyone wanted and still wants to do anything to help.
“Anything that we can do from our end, we will,” Fischer said. “We’re not doctors so we can’t treat anything. All we can do is what we know how to do and that’s play football.”
It goes without saying that the 2010 football season is now as much about Campi for the Lions as it is football. The team has already dedicated the season to their stricken teammate. Louisa’s helmets each have his number, 63, pasted on the side instead of the team logo. The players wear shirts, wrist and arm bands emblazoned with Campi’s number.
“It was an automatic decision for everyone,” Fischer said.
And now that season has officially begun, during each drill the Louisa players notice that the guy who used to blend in is no longer participating.
“I feel like we took Campi for granted,” said fellow senior lineman, DeAngelo Johnson. “He was a regular guy just like anyone else. He wasn’t really noticed. And then once he was gone everyone was like, ‘Dang, Campi, where’d he go? It was a shock.’”
It’s an added incentive now for a Lions team that is projected to have a strong season with a number of returning starters on both sides of the ball. There was a lot to play for before all of this. Now everyone wants to bring up their level of play for Campi.
“Everybody wants to play as best as they can for him,” Johnson said.
It’s only the first week of August, but the last few weeks Louisa already provided this team with all the inspiration they need. They’re set on making Campi proud, and understandably so.
“He lives for Louisa football,” Fischer said. “That’s everything he’s about. He’s just one of those kids that everybody bonded to before this happened.”
So while two practices in less than 12 hours and sleeping on a floor sounds like a tough introduction to the season, and the two-a-days that follow in the hot sun may sound tedious, it’s all about perspective. Fischer, already known as a coach who does not lack intensity and motivation, notes that the experience has given him a new drive, a new sense of purpose. He’s not going to stop working on anything that will make this team better, and on top of that, he doesn’t want to hear about players being tired or not being able to give it their all.
The players can’t complain, because as Fischer put it, “Josh would give anything to be out here.”
