The Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA) has created the Jody Conradt Award to honor a female coach that has exemplified Conradt’s characteristics. The organization has named Judy Campbell as the first recipient. This award is given based on the following criteria:
- must be a female professional member in good standing of the THSCA.
- should have served as a positive role model for athletes and coaches.
- should, by her actions and lifestyle, bring credit to the coaching profession.
- must be a female that has made a significant contribution to women’s high school athletics in Texas.
- The candidate’s win/loss record should not be the sole determining factor in selecting the nominee.
“We are thrilled to create an award that honors the elite female leaders in the coaching profession inspired by a true trailblazer,” said THSCA Executive Director, Joe Martin. “Not only are these hard-working and distinguished coaches, such as Jody Conradt and Judy Campbell, a fundamental part of the success of female high school athletics, but they also make THSCA a trusted resource to coaches around the state.”
Garland ISD Assistant AD Campbell is a graduate of Royse City HS where she played basketball, the only women’s sport offered at the time. She began her teaching career in 1969 in Royse City and in 1974, moved to the junior high school to teach and serve as girls’ basketball coach.
After one year as a junior high coach, Campbell was asked to coach the high school and middle school track teams. She accepted but had no experience in track and field.
Without a track to practice on and only one hurdle, Campbell coached multiple jumpers and a hurdler to the regional meet. In 1975, Royse City HS added volleyball at the high school level which Campbell coached while still serving as the junior high basketball and track coach and the high school track coach.
The first volleyball game Campbell ever saw, she coached. In addition to the coaching responsibilities, she was the junior high cheer sponsor, the high school student council sponsor and taught seven periods a day! At the beginning of the 1975-76 school year, Homer B. Johnson, the Garland ISD athletic director, asked Campbell to come to Garland and start a girls’ athletic program.
At that time, no schools in GISD offered any sports for girls. In 1976, Campbell joined the district and served as the coach of all the sports offered at the time: volleyball, basketball and track & field. In addition, Campbell was also named the first girls’ coordinator and reported to the boy’s football coach, who was the campus AD. After four years at South Garland, the women’s staff finally grew to three assistant coaches, but also added soccer to the list of girls’ sports. Every coach on the girls’ staff coached multiple sports, shared one small office, had no dressing rooms and only had access to the small gym with a rubber floor.
GISD had five schools by this time and all operated the same.
Additionally, all girls’ teams had to play sports Monday and Thursday because the boys played Tuesday and Friday in the competition gym which was designated for boys’ sports use only.
In 1988, Johnson asked Campbell to go to Naaman Forest HS which opened serving grades 6-9 where the four-woman coaching staff would oversee all the middle school and freshman sports. After the first year, NFHS dropped a lower grade and added an upper grade until they became a four-year high school. While building up to grades 9-12, they added one coach and another sport – softball.
At NFHS, Campbell finally got to coach varsity basketball and serve as the girls’ coordinator. Before her retirement in 2002, she had grown the staff to six women coaches. Campbell was only retired for three months when Johnson asked her to return to GISD as a part time assistant athletic director.
She had applied for the job in the past, but Johnson said he needed a man to haul boxes and equipment to the schools – not a woman. Although the men held the full-time assistant AD positions, they both soon took other jobs which led to Campbell being named the full time assistant athletic director.
Johnson eventually hired another male as the assistant AD, but Campbell remained full time.
After 22 years, she still serves as GISD assistant AD. She has been an active member of the THSCA since 1998 – when women were finally allowed to join. She was turned away on her first attempt to join but now says that she will “always be a member of THSCA because I can.”
Campbell applauds the efforts of the THSCA to acknowledge women in sports and become the most inclusive organization in the state!