How one high jump launched Grant Campbell to national attention, future at Tennessee

Nashville Tennessean

MURFREESBORO – There was a time Grant Campbell had no plans to compete in track and field this season.

His college future was basketball, he'd decided. In fact, the 6-foot-8 Heritage senior had chosen his college destination in Freed-Hardeman.

But then his mom, Jennifer Campbell, talked her son into competing one more year before turning his focus to basketball. He already had won a TSSAA Class AAA state title as a sophomore in the high jump.

Why not compete one last season?

"I just said, 'Just do it. It's your last year. Go out there and do it and see.,'" Jennifer said.

Heritage Mountaineer Grant Campbell competes in the high jump during the 2023 TSSAA Division II-AAA boys track state championship at the Dean A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tenn. on May. 24, 2023.

Campbell has the state record in the high jump at 7-feet-3 ¼ inches and currently has the No. 2 jump in the country.

On Thursday, Campbell claimed his second state title in three years at Middle Tennessee State's Dean A. Hayes Stadium, clearing 7 feet.

"I had no idea this was possible," Grant said. "Start of this year I was wanting to quit and focus on basketball. First meet I was jumping high. And next thing I knew I was jumping over 7 feet."

It was his 7-3¼ jump April 29 that grabbed SEC track and field coaches' attention. It came a week before he was scheduled to sign with Freed-Hardeman for basketball. And it changed his college plans.

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"The next morning after I jumped 7-3¼ my phone was blowing up," Grant said. "Everyone was calling. Most of the schools in the SEC were calling. Mississippi State, Oklahoma, MTSU, Tennessee — just a bunch.

"I was getting ready to sign and the jump happened and I decided to hold that off."

He committed and signed with Tennessee.

"It was a whirlwind," Jennifer said. "He was set for basketball. That's what he's trained for his whole life. It's what he wanted to do. When he hit that jump he decided he might have something there."