Citing his new job as a “dream,” Kevin Campbell said he will maintain the “family culture” predecessor Joe Parenti laid down in taking over as Oak Park and River Forest High School’s baseball coach.
“The changes will be signs, tweaks, a strategy that I’ve created in my own time coaching from junior high on,” said Campbell. “A little twist of my own.”
Campbell had been Parenti’s top assistant and remains as a physical education teacher at OPRF. He was appointed by the District 200 Board of Education after Parenti — who continues at the school as a special-education teacher — desired to spend more time with his young family.
Campbell began coaching in 2009 at St. Raymond Junior High in Joliet, while he was still a student-athlete at Millikin University in downstate Decatur. He first joined the OPRF baseball program in 2016.
“He is passionate and truly a players’ coach,” Huskies Athletic Director Nicole Ebsen said. “I look forward to seeing the great things he will do to carry out the tradition of success within the baseball program.”
Describing himself as a “players’ coach with high energy,” Campbell said “the first thing these guys will notice is just the way I approach practice. There will be a little more tempo to practice, and it will be a little more challenging.”
The new coach will be charged with maintaining a winning program. Parenti had coached for 16 years, starting on the freshman team in 2006. He was promoted to assistant on the varsity in 2008, helping steer the Huskies to the state championship in 2012. He was promoted to head coach in 2017.
Parenti led the Huskies to a 17-8 record in a pandemic-shortened 2021. OPRF made the sectional tournament last season after reaching the supersectionals in 2019.
“I can’t blame him for wanting to spend time with family, and coach them (one on one),” said Campbell. “He’s a great coach and a great mentor, not only to kids, but also to adults like myself.”
For full-time high-school teachers, serving as a head coach responsible for a couple dozen players and assistants only extends the work day even further.
“It was part of a plan that I established for me and my family,” said Parenti. “I was waiting for a time to do it. As my kids are 7 and 4, and getting into sports and activities, it was important for me to be around the house.
“Coaching takes up a lot of time. My wife Crystal has a growing business. I will continue as assistant boys’ golf coach in the fall.”
His successor plans to capitalize on the fact that Midwestern winter weather tends to lurk around even into May. Campbell plans to produce runs with “small ball,” not relying on power that often is thwarted by howling cold winds.
“We’ll let our bigger bats go to work, and rest of the lineup do their thing,” he said. “We’ll take advantage of the cold weather on the bases. Opposing fielders’ hands will be cold and we’ll force the guy to make another throw.”
That means Campbell will turn sophomore center fielder Mason Phillips loose on the bases. “He was a freshman who started in center field,” he said. “We expect big things of him. He’s one of the fastest kids in the state.”
The core of the lineup also includes senior first baseman Danny Michaud, right fielder Jack Flagg and middle infielder Giovanni Pamias.
Campbell will let pitching coach Tim Dennehy run what he projected is a “very deep and very talented” staff. He said top starters will be right-handers David Andolina, a senior committed to Lehigh University, and junior Calvin Proskey, committed to the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Cole Shanhart was the 2021 regular-season closer, then became the Huskies’ best starter in the playoffs. He again will be in the running for the rotation. Senior Jack Spinks could return to bullpen duty, Campbell said.
