Five members will be inducted into the Michigan Lacrosse Hall of Fame at a ceremony held Oct. 26. GLS will publish their bios, courtesy of U.S. Lacrosse, over the next five days.
Michael Campbell
Mike has been actively involved and associated with lacrosse in Michigan for over thirty-five years as a player, coach, official and volunteer. After playing at the University of Michigan in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Mike returned to his hometown of Grand Rapids. There, along with Tom Mitchell and Bert Smith, he helped organize the Grand Rapids Lacrosse Club (GRLC), the second lacrosse program in West Michigan. Many of the current teams in West Michigan can trace their origins to the GRLC. Mike played, coached and managed the GRLC for almost twenty years. While with the GRLC, Mike also served as an officer (and ultimately president) of the Midwest Club Lacrosse Association.
While obtaining an MBA at Michigan State, Mike served as a graduate assistant coach for MSU’s varsity team under the leadership of Rich Kimball.
Realizing that a chapter affiliation with the US Lacrosse Foundation (now US Lacrosse) would benefit the growth of Lacrosse in West Michigan, Mike, along with Tom Mitchell, Bert Smith and Rich Kimball, among others, formed the West Michigan Chapter of the US Lacrosse Foundation. The West Michigan Chapter evolved into the present Michigan Chapter of US Lacrosse. Mike served on the initial Board of Directors and was secretary and general counsel for the chapter.
After competing his playing career, Mike has been a volunteer youth coach with East Grand Rapids and a high school and college official. For the last seven years, he has been the head varsity Lacrosse coach at Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the bio of Jennifer Dunbar.
After coaching teams in the lax travel circuit for a few years, I had the pleasure of running into the Grand Rapids Lacrosse Club and can say they are a first class program. Great kids, great coaches and community. I will say, we did beat them 🙂 But seriously, congrats to Coach Campbell on a job well done.