Clarksville Connection
Ten years after glory at River Hill, Ravens’ Campanaro is eager to face Texans’ Johnson
Zach Martin starred on the first River Hill football team to win a state championship, in 2007, and after the end of his playing career at William & Mary and McDaniel, he rejoined the Hawks as an assistant coach. At times over his three years on staff, it was as if he’d never left.
During one preseason, Martin remembers River Hill coach Brian Van Deusen queuing up old footage. The film was not of the previous season’s games but from years before, when the players watching it, Martin joked, were “probably in elementary school.” Up on the screen came clips of the ’06, ’07 and ’08 teams, which won a combined 41 games and lost just once.
“That kind of started it all,” Martin said. Four times in six years, the Hawks’ season ended with a state championship. After the second, a 31-6 win over Eastern Tech in the 2008 Class 2A final, Michael Campanaro and Kevin Johnson, two best friends from Clarksville, celebrated on the field at M&T Bank Stadium.
It was a preview of coming attractions for the program and two of its brightest prospects. On Monday, almost exactly 10 Monday, 8:30 p.m. TV: ESPN Radio: 97.9 FM, 1090 AM Line: Ravens by 7 years since that state title, they will reunite for another game in Baltimore, longtime teammates turned opponents for one night. Campanaro is a fourth-year returner and receiver for the Ravens (5-5). Johnson a third-year cornerback for the Houston Texans (4-6).
Campanaro has prepared for the possibility that Johnson might cover him on national television. It was a concession they had to make long ago, when as teenagers