Sweeney looking build off playoff run to help Campbell football return to top

For Conor Sweeney, the clock started ticking the moment the field goal attempt went through the uprights.

Ever since the Campbell High School football team dropped last year's Division III championship game to Monadnock on a last-second kick, Sweeney has been counting down the days to the start of his senior football season.

"Every day, I was thinking about it and it’s great to be back out here," Sweeney said. "We had that on our shoulders. We thought about it every day. It’s annoying to have had that happen, but we’re getting back into it and looking good. We definitely can use it as motivation to get back this year."

It's a feeling that Sweeney might not have expected he'd have before last season. While he played football off and on before high school, baseball was the sport he'd grown up with and felt was his favorite.

But when his classmates talked him into coming back to football before their freshmen year at Campbell, it set in motion the path he's on right now.

"Conor has always been an excellent athlete," Cougars coach Glen Costello said. "His freshman year, you could see bursts here and there, but he was a young freshman. We were senior- and junior-heavy that year. When he came out sophomore year, that’s when he really started to shine."

Sweeney grabbed a starting role at free safety as a sophomore, and last season, he added a spot in the offensive backfield alongside fellow junior Keegan Mills.

When Mills, who was the team's leading rusher, went down with an ankle injury early in Campbell's semifinal game against Stevens, Sweeney was thrust into the spotlight.

"This is my time," he said. "I wasn’t expecting it and it was unfortunate that Keegan went down. As soon as I saw that though, I said ‘it’s time to get your head in the game.’ I focused and went out there."

While many outside the program thought the injury to Mills - he ended up not playing in the championship game - meant certain doom for the Cougars, Costello believed that Sweeney would have no problem stepping up to the occasion.

"Conor as a sophomore played almost every defensive snap," the coach said. "He didn’t make a ton of plays, but he did his job. He was that reliable type of football player. He fractured his vertebrae in the playoff game against Stevens (in 2017) and finished the game. He was that type of kid, you knew toughness-wise, he could be there. All season he worked and worked. He was the next man up and he just ran with it."

Ran with it Sweeney did, as he piled up 162 yards on the ground and the game's only touchdown in the Cougars' 8-0 win over Stevens in the semifinals.

And against Monadnock in the final, he had all of Campbell's points on the day, breaking off touchdown runs of 24- and 78-yards that gave the Cougars a 12-0 lead before the Huskies came back.

"Those were big for me," Sweeney said. "Baseball has always been my sport. Last year was my eye-opener. Those were the games where I was like I think I like football a lot more."

During the offseason, Sweeney attended a couple of college camps to see where he might fit in at the next level and he's hopeful that another good year with the Cougars will help him get noticed.

But before that happens, he's focused one thing - getting Campbell back to the final at the University of New Hampshire for the third year in a row.

"We have another special team this year," he said. "We definitely can get back there, that’s what I’m expecting."

Sweeney will be taking on a couple of new roles as he tries to help lead the Cougars back to the final. With quarterback Adam Breton graduating, Sweeney slides over to take that spot in the backfield.

Costello hopes that being in that position also helps Sweeney develop into more of a vocal leader on the team as well.

"We moved him from running back to quarterback this year," Costello said. "It was increasing the mental piece of it and the leadership piece of it. Conor has always been a kid that led by example, and now we’re starting to see a kid who is being a little more vocal and taking charge. To his credit, it was a jump, but I think Conor worked very hard in the offseason to work at it."