By Sean Markisic
Megan Campbell’s love for the game began at a young age, and has only grown since. Her continuous passion for the game catapulted her into a career in basketball that was filled with constant hard work and always striving to always improve, whether it came from playing as a member of the team or coaching the team herself.
She took over as the head coach of BC’s women’s basketball team in April 2023 from her mentor, Alex Lang, who coached the team for 20 years. She used his methodology for coaching to inspire her own plays on the court.
“I played under Alex, I really appreciate the system he built here. I take and make tweaks here and there but keep alot of it,” Campbell told The Vanguard. “It was a great learning experience, much different being an assistant as opposed to a player. You see things a little differently as an assistant, you get frustrated the same way our coaches used to get frustrated at us.”
Campbell has had a successful basketball career during her time as both a player and a coach. She was awarded “Coach of the Year” for 2024 and won the fourth straight CUNY Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) Championship for the women’s team, continuing a legacy of winning. Campbell also had a notable playing career in basketball at BC from 2013-2015, which included her being named on the first CUNYAC All-Star team and helping the Bulldogs to win the ECAC Tournament.
After graduating from BC, Campbell continued to build her basketball resume in Carlow, Ireland, where she attended the Institute of Technology and contributed to winning the Women’s National League championship. In addition to that honor, Campbell coached the Old Leighlin Girls’ Team to a championship in the All Ireland Club Championship. Campbell said to play at BC and then immediately transition into playing in Ireland was quite similar despite being in a foreign country.
“It’s pretty similar, it’s all about adapting to the team style of play and the level of competition. There were usually two Americans going at it, so it wasn’t much of an adjustment,” Campbell said.
Campbell believes that the next step for the Bulldogs would be to compete at the national level, which many other CUNY schools have never gotten the opportunity to do. Currently, the most important thing for Campbell is to continue to win and build the team as it moves into a new era.
“It’s going to be somewhat of a rebuilding year next year, we’re losing a decent amount of seniors, we have to see the recruits that are coming in but the goal for next season is still to win a championship and continue to build on the success we’ve had the last few years,” Campbell told The Vanguard.
Despite the challenges of going from a player to leading a whole team, becoming a coach was a goal Campbell knew she wanted to achieve. Her leadership role as coach has meant that her love for the game will continue to propel her forward, appreciating how far she has come to achieve it.
“I actually knew in college that I wanted to go into coaching, I wanted to be a physical education teacher then coach. I wanted to always coach at the college level but didn’t think it was attainable,” Campbell said. “Looking back, it’s crazy to see where I am now, and I’m very appreciative of it.”