Submitted photo / Livesay Photography The 2024 Campbell High School football team.

CAMPBELL — Change is on the horizon for Campbell football.

After spending four years in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier, the Red Devils will now be members of the MVAC Scarlet Tier beginning this season.

So instead of schools like Champion, LaBrae, Garfield, Liberty and Newton Falls, Campbell will be facing the likes of Jackson-Milton, McDonald, Western Reserve and Springfield.

“Overall as a district, we’re comparable to them in terms of size,” Red Devils head coach Andrew King said. “This side of the Tier is just more competitive in terms of numbers. But in terms of teams, we have a lot of great teams on this side of the Tier, so I’m excited for the challenge that comes with it, but I’m also excited for our kids. It’s just a nice change to not have to go against the Division V regional champion every year in Garfield and things like that.”

Once Sebring elected to leave the MVAC Scarlet Tier and play 8-man football, the conference had been looking for a school to fill that spot. For Campbell, the move just made sense.

“It was between us and probably a couple others, and ultimately they voted us, and we decided to change for all sports,” King said. “I think it benefits everybody in the league. Plus, travel times are probably better by a few minutes.”

Despite going 1-9 a year ago, Campbell has its sights set this season on having a winning record for the first time since 2012 and returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

“We want to start well, and ultimately make the playoffs,” King said. “That’s where we’re at right now. We want to be able to make the playoffs and have an extra game for these kids and for the community and get back to Campbell football.”

In order to achieve that, King needs his players to believe they’re capable of it, while also coming together as one unit.

“I think our kids have it in them,” King said. “The hardest part is getting the kids to play as one heartbeat. Our kids just have to learn to fight together, fight for each other and rally around each other. Honestly, I think the chips will fall the way they’re supposed to if we can do that. That’s the one missing piece, I think. It’s not a football-related thing, it’s a team-related thing. If we can get that to happen, these kids are athletic enough to be good at football.”

OFFENSE

With the exception of an older group of linemen that are now graduated, the Red Devils played a significant number of underclassmen on both sides of the ball last year and return each of those players.

That gives King and the rest of the coaching staff something to build off.

“Skill-wise, they’re all young,” King said. “They were freshmen, sophomores and juniors last year, so we’re pretty excited about that part.”

Schematically, with a younger, inexperienced group on the offensive line, Campbell has altered its schemes to more of a zone concept to simplify things.

“We lost a lot of linemen last year in terms of who were starting and we had a big class of linemen,” King said. “We’re trying to get a little bit of a different atmosphere out of the linemen that we have here, and I think we’ve been doing a really good job of that. We changed up our schemes a bit to fit the kids better.”

Last year’s quarterback Mihali Koullias is a senior this season, but according to King, sophomore DJ Lambert is in the pole position to start at quarterback for the Red Devils.

“He’s very athletic and has a great ball,” King said. “He’s a sophomore, so you have to coach him up a little bit. I’m just looking for him to be coachable, be an athlete and make sure that he spreads the ball around the way we’re supposed to.”

At running back, Campbell returns its two-way veteran in Kevin Timlin for his senior season. Timlin is a four-year starter at several positions on both sides of the field, who moved to running back last year and excelled. He ran for 542 yards and four touchdowns in his first season in the backfield.

Sophomore Dre Brown will also see snaps at running back, as well, after amassing 272 rushing yards during his freshman campaign.

“He really ran the ball well,” King said of Brown. “This kid is something special coming up, so I’m looking to see what he has in the tank.”

Jacob Tovarnak and Cayden Thomas are returning up front, and will anchor a young and inexperienced group on the offensive line.

“Cayden is a sophomore, but he is better than most of the senior leaders I’ve seen in terms of leadership,” King said. “Jacob’s a good verbal and physical leader as well. So I’m just looking for them to be coachable and take on the new schemes that we’re putting out there.”

At receiver, junior Kaleb Boudrey, senior Malik Young and Armani Robinson targeted by the quarterback.

But after missing last season, Campbell will also get Keon Harris back as the team’s X receiver. Harris has similar physical attributes to his older brother David Moore, who was the Red Devils’ leading receiver last year before graduating.

“I’m really liking what Keon has shown in the summer so far, so hopefully that translates to full-pad football,” King said. “The nice part in a small school is you have a couple kids that stand out, but everybody else is up there too. With the wide receiver corp that we have, I’m not afraid to put four out there, I’m not afraid to put five. But also we got good running backs to where I can put two and three of them out there too.”

DEFENSE

Campbell is keeping things simple on defense.

“Defensively, we’re really basic, but everybody is in the summer,” King said. “The personnel that we have allows us to be a little bit more free in terms of play calling and letting the kids just get out in space and be athletes.”

Leading the way at the point of attack, Thomas will play both ways on the line, and he’ll be joined by junior Jordan Craft, who saw playing time last year on the defensive line.

“They’re going to head up the D-line,” King said. “I just want them to be aggressive and play football. See-ball, find-ball kind of thing within our defensive scheme.”

In the second level, Dino Brown returns as a three-year starter at linebacker, and he’ll be joined by senior Mike Itropolus.

“(Dino) is one of the better linebackers I’ve coached in a long time. He just can find the football,” King said. “(Dino and Itropolus have started together the last three years, and I can’t say enough about those two guys in terms of being a linebacker and their ability to find the football and not being afraid to hit somebody.”

Timlin will be the veteran defensive back in the secondary. He and Boudrey will both reprise their spots at safety, while Lambert and Koullias will line up at cornerback.

“We have a couple other guys to filter in, but that secondary is just locked down,” King said. “We want to keep them flying to the football and just clean it up when anything gets loose.”

Timlin’s experience and presence on both sides of the ball gives Campbell almost another coach on the field.

He helps make sure his teammates are in position and he helps relay the play calls to the rest of the defense.

“The Kevin Timlins are the kids that you coach for, they’re program kids,” King said. “They work really hard, they’re working their way up and they’re coachable. He communicates pretty well. Him being a veteran now is nice. As a freshman, you look at him like, ‘okay, he’s going to be pretty good.’ Then sophomore and junior, he’s getting better. Now as a senior, this is the expectation and it’s nice to see. I think having him back there, he’s going to be a focal point.”

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Red Devils have several question marks on special teams with their kicker from last season opting to just play soccer this year.

But King said they have a couple of players who are vying for the placekicker and kickoff jobs.

“Anybody who lives in Campbell that wants to play football and kick would be great,” King said. “I’ll take open auditions. In smaller schools, the hardest part is trying to share that with the soccer team sometimes or finding a guy that can kick it to the goal line.”

Junior Lucas Kozorinsky will punt this season for Campbell.

“He started punting at the end of last year,” King said. “He punts the ball pretty well.”

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