Pacific Digest 3 - Feb.-Mar. 2007
Pacific’s Scholar Athletes of the Year
By JANE LEE, Pacific Digest Staff Writer
Despite spending the first few years of her life in Mexico, it’s hard not to argue that Vianney Campos is a true All-American — in every sense of the word.
The University of Pacific senior field hockey player was recently named First Team All-American for her remarkable, record-setting play throughout the 2006 season.
Campos scored 32 goals and eight assists on the season for a total of 72 points, all of which were school records. A forward, she also holds the Tigers’ records for goals in a game, as well as goals, assists and points in a career.Whew.
And if that’s not enough, she was featured this year in Sports Illustrated as a “Faces in the Crowd” — just don’t bring up the fact that it had to be published twice because a wrong picture was included with her information the first time.
“That was the worst day of my life when I saw that,” she said. “My heart dropped and it was devastating at first, but my coaches laughed and reminded me that what I had done was in there and the picture didn’t matter.”
The numbers on the field, like ones printed in Sports Illustrated, speak for themselves, but off the field Campos excels just as an All-American girl.She doesn’t party or drink, but Campos knows how to make her own fun on the weekend.
“Well first of all, she sleeps ‘til noon,” said roommate and teammate Erica Nestle.Trips to Target and Panda Express or to the bowling alley are a few favorite weekend spots, but Sundays are reserved for the TV, where Campos loudly cheers on fan favorite LT and the Chargers.
“I don’t like leaving on Sundays,” she said. “I can’t miss a Chargers game.” Nor can she miss MTV’s “Real World” or go a day without eating candy. Her cooking skills don’t go beyond making Cup O Noodles, she loves being with her family, spends more hours than most studying and says she could never imagine herself living anywhere but the Golden State.
“I’m definitely a California girl,” she said. “I would never go anywhere else.”
All-American ways weren’t always part of her lifestyle, however. Just 14 years ago, Campos sat nervously in a second grade classroom during her first day at school in San Diego. She had recently moved to the coastal Southern California city with her family from their hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. On that day, the usually outgoing Campos was anything but gregarious, as she knew not one word of English.“I couldn’t understand what everyone around me was saying so I remember going home and asking how to say, ‘May I go to the bathroom?’” The following day she bravely walked into the classroom again, this time prepared to communicate with her teacher. “May I go to the bathroom?” Campos asked. “That’s all I knew how to say for awhile,” she said.
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Now 21 years old, Campos can laugh at the memory, knowing she’s come a long way since those days in elementary school. Despite the language barrier, which she eventually overcame, Campos easily made friends through sports, her first love. “I’ve always played sports,” she said. “My dad (Alejandro) was a professional soccer player in Mexico, so sports were always our life.”
Softball was her first taste of athletic competition, but it was basketball that won over her heart.
“Basketball’s always been my heart,” she said. “I’ve had somewhat of a hard time with it just because I’m short, but I love to play.” The 5-foot-4-inch Campos can even thank basketball for being introduced to field hockey during her freshman year of high school.
“In San Diego field hockey is not a big deal or widely known,” she said. “I actually only started playing it to get in shape for basketball season, so it was between hockey and volleyball, and I figured I’d be doing a bit more running in field hockey.”
Campos graduated from Eastlake High School with 12 letters in field hockey, basketball and softball. As a Titan, she was the team MVP in field hockey as a senior and was named the Southbay Metro League Player of the Year en route to being recruited by several top notch schools. Pacific and California were her final two options, but the Tigers won her over with a bonus playing option, as well as school size.
“I told Pacific I wanted to play both field hockey and basketball, and they said I could,” she said. “I tried out for basketball my freshman year, but it didn’t work out, so maybe it was for the best. “But what caught my eye about Pacific was that it is a small school. Athletes and students get really close attention, and you never feel like a fish in the pond. I love walking around and saying ‘hi’ to people I know, so I like being in that kind of atmosphere.” And even though she never got to lace up her basketball shoes for college play, she was welcomed on to Pacific’s softball team on which she will participate for the first time in the spring.
Behind the competitive Campos, however, is a down-to-earth person. “Most people think that I’m really tough and have no heart, but I’m actually a really sensitive person,” she said. Nestle shook her head in agreement, saying that Campos “is one of those people that when you talk to her, you always smile.” “She’s really funny, and most people see her as a rough and tough person on the outside, but once you get to know her she’s real sensitive and easy to talk to.
“She’s also a really good teammate because she’s a born leader.” Even though she’s double majoring in sociology and criminal justice, Campos can see herself doing something with sports science upon graduation — that is, after spending some more time with her team. “I’m probably going to be staying here and helping my field hockey coaches,” she said. “So hopefully I’ll be staying in the hockey world as long as I can.”
Even 10 years from now? “I would definitely still want to be coaching at that point,” she said. “Maybe I’ll have a career as a correctional officer or something like that, but I’d still like to be involved with hockey and maybe married with kids.”
And even better, she said, if the kids have LT’s genes.