The Campbell Camels boys basketball program enters its 2021-22 campaign in search of a new identity after graduating nine seniors off of last season’s varsity squad that finished 25-4, won the Bootheel Conference Tournament, and claimed the Class 2 state title.

“We graduated nine out of our 11 players on our varsity squad last season,” Campbell longtime coach Steve Fowler said. “We are bringing back one of our two juniors. The one senior we have on our squad, Riley Benson, has played quite a bit on our junior varsity in the past, which is going to help. But we are going to be moving quite a few freshmen and sophomores up to join him, so we will be really young this year.”

Campbell has one senior, five juniors, four sophomores, and nine freshmen out for high school basketball.

“We are going to play for the here and now but also build for the future,” Fowler said.

“Our young kids will benefit the next several years from the varsity time they get this season. It’s exciting going in knowing we’ve got a lot of young guys that are going to develop at the varsity level. We are just looking to develop, get better every game, and continue to work hard.”

Fowler says he has not determined who will start on the varsity squad yet.

“Right now in practice I call them Group 1 and Group 2,” he said. “I don’t even have a junior varsity and varsity team because we are going to be mixing kids together. Who is going to get varsity minutes is going to change day to day and practice to practice. But we do have some kids that are working hard and trying to earn a starting spot. When it’s all said in done we may end up with a few upperclassmen and underclassmen in our starting lineup each night on varsity.”

Campbell opened its season Friday against Cairo, Illinois, at the Riverbend Shootout at New Madrid County Central High School.

“That’s going to be a tough game for our young kids,” Fowler said. “But like I said earlier, it’s going to be good for them in the long run. I know it might be hard for some of the parents and kids to see that right now. We have a very tough schedule but we should see our young kids experience some character growth this season.”