Resilient high school wrestler shows he’s back on track at Harrisonville Tournament

In just his sophomore year at Harrisonville High, Trevor Campbell found himself wrestling for fifth place in the Missouri Class 3 state championship meet.

Cruising in the third period last year by a score of 10-2, Campbell was set to end his wrestling season with a state medal and high hopes heading into baseball season.

But with just mere moments left in the 195-pound match, Campbell’s arm got caught up with his opponent from Fort Zumwalt South and he was thrown to the mat.

“My arm was off to the side,” Campbell recalled as he sat watching a pair of showdowns Saturday in one of Harrisonville High School’s three gyms.

Campbell lost the fifth-place match he’d led by injury default.

Now a junior wearing Harrisonville’s blue and black singlet, there’s no sign that less than a year ago Campbell broke his right arm in two places, requiring surgery that included the insertion of two metal plates and 12 screws.

“I feel like my arm is stronger — or at least that’s what I tell myself,” he said with a laugh Saturday as he awaited his semifinal bout at the Harrisonville Tournament, a holiday wrestling showcase that drew participants from three states and some 24 high schools.

And it was hard to disagree. Campbell is back on the mat, grappling with opponents with the deftness of a right tackle — the position he plays for the Wildcats’ football team.

But it wasn’t a swift or easy recovery. Campbell missed his sophomore season of baseball during his rehabilitation. It was three months before he could even start lifting weights again.

”It was highly disappointing, because he’s up big in the match and it was just a freak accident,” said Harrisonville wrestling coach Eric DeVenney. “An awful way to finish, and he had big plans to play baseball in the spring, lifting and getting stronger and stuff. It was a setback.”

But not a defining one. Campbell was diligent in his rehab and back in action in time for football season, helping Harrisonville to a 6-6 record this past fall. Along the way, DeVenney saw more to Campbell’s recovery than just his ability to get back onto the football field.

“Resilience is a really good word,” DeVenney said. “To bounce back and continue to work hard and say, ‘You know what, sometimes bad things happen, but you’ve just got to keep working hard’ ... That’s what you can control.”

DeVenney calls Campbell a “great leader” on the wrestling team. Leading up to this weekend’s tournament, Campbell assisted in preparation for the event, helping set up the giant mats in the school’s several gyms and performing other needed tasks.

The fact that Campbell missed very little time at school during his recuperation also impressed his coach.

“Some kids would have milked that a little bit and stayed out,” DeVenney said. “But he cares about his grades, he cares about his attendance, so he stayed focused on that, too.”

As one of Harrisonville’s top performers for the Wildcats last winter, expectations are naturally pretty high for Campbell as he looks to improve upon last year’s finish at state.

He has tested his arm in competition, and now he’s learned to trust it, too.

”I think the first match I was for sure a little hesitant,” Campbell said. “Whenever you’re getting thrown or getting taken down, keep your hands. Don’t try to post and stop it.

“But for the most part, I haven’t worried about it. I just kind of wrestle the way I’ve always wrestled.”