'A great program to be involved with': Tim Campbell is new Wadsworth High School AD

The Wadsworth athletic department has a new leader in Tim Campbell, who takes over as athletic director on Aug. 1.

Brad Musgrave retired in June after spending the past 11 years as Wadsworth's athletic director.

Campbell spent the past 19 years on the University of Akron's strength and conditioning staff. Campbell, 42, and his wife, Kelly, moved to Wadsworth 12 years ago and have three children: Colin, Liam and Mason who all attend Wadsworth schools.

"He has been heavily invested in our youth programs and with our programs coming through here with his kids," Wadsworth Assistant Superintendent Steve Moore said. "We are excited to have him on board. ... We had about 50 applicants and we interviewed about 12 applicants. What we liked about Tim is that he has a passion for athletics and we think he is going to relate real well to our community because he knows our community.

"We are excited about what he has done at the University of Akron and promoting and working with collegiate athletics. We think that is going to translate real well to working with our high school athletes. A lot of our high school athletes want to become collegiate athletes. We think that is going to be a good transition for him and us. We like his energy, his passion and his enthusiasm."

Campbell is a 2000 graduate of Lake High School and earned two degrees from the University of Akron, including a master's in exercise physiology in 2006. He competed in football, wrestling and baseball at Lake, and was a fullback for Akron's football team for three seasons.

Campbell was a graduate assistant at Akron in 2005 and was hired full time in 2006 as the assistant director of strength and conditioning. He was promoted to Akron's Director of Strength and Conditioning in 2010.

"I spent 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 with football," Campbell said. "I started with men's basketball in 2009 and worked with that program until 2022. I was the men's basketball strength coach for basically every tournament appearance until this year."

Campbell worked with all of Akron's athletic programs and mentored NCAA national champions, Mid-American Conference champions and All-Americans.

Campbell was the Zips men's soccer strength coach for the past 19 seasons, including in 2010 when Akron won the national title.

"I love Akron ... I was there for 19 seasons," Campbell said. "Wadsworth, it's where I live and it's where my kids go to school. The thought of being able to be involved with my kids programs for the rest of their high school days was really appealing to me. On top of that, the reason we moved to Wadsworth to begin with is they have high level athletics and high level academics. This is a great program to be involved with."

Brad Musgrave retires as Wadsworth's athletic director

Moore appreciates the work Musgrave did as AD at Wadsworth before his retirement.

"Brad has done a great job for us for the last 11 years in what is an incredibly difficult job that I have done before," said Moore, who spent five years as Wadsworth's AD earlier in his career.

"He did a nice job of getting all the pieces and parts and making everything work and meld together. ... Brad is well respected amongst the coaches and community. He did a great job of organizing and running a great ship for us. We have a lot of great programs and he has done a great job with all of them."

Musgrave, 58, and his wife, Dottie, have three daughters, Brittany, Kim and Karrie.

Musgrave started his career teaching and coaching at Arcadia High School, where he was a 1984 graduate, and also worked in Findlay and Napoleon before his run at Wadsworth.

Wadsworth athletes have won several state championships, regional titles, district crowns and league titles during Musgrave's time in charge.

"Overall, it's been a tremendous experience," Musgrave said. "I have gotten to meet a lot of great people. The coaches that I have worked with over 11 years have been like family because I spend more time with them than I do my own family. The great administrators, great teachers, great support staff and people that have worked games for me and community members as a whole, it has been an overall great experience.

"It is just time for somebody younger to take over because I have been doing 50 to 70 hour work weeks for 10 months out of the year for 22 straight years and I am really tired. It is time to give it to somebody younger that has more energy. It is time to give them the reins to take over. ... I wish Tim nothing but the best. He is walking into a really great place."

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com .

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'A great program to be involved with': Tim Campbell is new Wadsworth High School AD