“It’s the ethos of maximising potential, not so much developing a champion.” Campbell Chesser's disciplined grounding

'Dragons Tales' is a series of indepth feature stories on some of our top prospects in 2021, exploring their junior careers, their upbringing, the ups and downs of the dealing with COVID complications and more, written by Jonty Ralphsmith. This week we will be focusing on running defender/midfielder, Campbell Chesser. 

Campbell Chesser’s long-time junior athletics coach always envisaged the youngster as a footballer in the long-term.  

He had the bounce, dash and spright. That was when a nine-year-old Chesser started working with Ken Little, a level four sprints coach and qualified psychologist, at the Albury Sports Academy.  

Back then, he was learning the Olympic weightlifting technique with a broomstick and dodging balls to sharpen his motor skills.  

Working in a program with 120 high-level sports people including a future Olympian, amateur golfer and college basketballer introduced Chesser to the team environment he now thrives in.  

“It set my foundations of professionalism and consistency of training …a lot of it was focused on speed and how that could help with my football because he knew I would choose that path,” Chesser said.  

“I was training with a lot of kids who were older than me which I think helped a fair bit. A lot of them I aspired to be like at the time, they were really good runners and I had a lot of really good mates there. I know the training sessions were quite hard which was good for me.” 

Chesser went to five national carnivals around the country, was one of the very best 200 metre runners in the country aged 12 and could run the 100 metres in 11.29 seconds. In between, Little mandated he take months off running where necessary, to allow his body to grow from 2014-17.   

“You could brutalise the kid or let him develop and become the athlete that he was capable of achieving,” Little said.  

“We wanted to nurture him, rather than train him. That was the catalyst for his development but without Campbell and his talent, he doesn’t get to where he is.  

“We gave him the best opportunity to [allow him to] express his skills later in life.  

“It’s the ethos of maximising potential, not so much developing a champion.

“He could’ve been a junior 400 metre champion, but he would not be the athlete he is today – he might have stress fractures or complaints.”   

Chesser still regards Little as one of the more influential figures in his sporting accomplishments for the coach’s contribution in his primitive years.  

“He was a good mentor.   

“We went on a trip to Perth together, he took me over there for a nationals campaign, and he has been a good life coach as well, and even now I still catch up with him.   

“I was working for him last summer, for example, in his gourmet kitchen so I’ve still got a good connection with him and he was good for my junior development, that’s for sure.”  

The coaching was underpinned by teaching running mechanics transferrable to other sports, as Little was keen to develop multi-faceted athletes.  

Part of that was supporting them in all their sporting ventures. Little recalls watching Chesser getting tagged as a 12-year-old for the Wodonga Bulldogs, and the now Sandy Dragon would regularly play an age bracket up, such was his distinction even as a junior.   

“He did things out there that was well beyond his age in terms of athleticism and got away with it. He was taking people on, running lines because of his speed and skill to get down to the ball.   

“He was built to be an athlete. Campbell can run, jump and do extraordinary things.”  

This year, those skills shone through when Chesser took to the field: the explosiveness, speed and composure are the attributes he has carried through juniors.  

As much as his on-field qualities, it is his manner off it that impresses: he’s personal and personable, aware and articulate, determined and disciplined. His time at the academy allowed for the covert instilling of those values.  

“We had him four nights a week, so we were quite able to influence him as a person,” Little said.  

While psychology sessions were part of the program, Little focussed more on the intangible things such as displaying sportsmanship and remaining level-headed in the face of adversity. Little aligned the concepts of mistakes and defeat with self-reflection and learning rather than grievance and loss.  

“We tend to build athletes on human qualities - resilience, honesty, integrity. All those skills that require someone to have the best shot they can at being who they want to be.  

“Campbell is a good kid and has those human qualities, so he can devote his journey to becoming an AFL footballer because that’s the perfect way to base your sporting career.  

“When you’re talking about culture-building, you build a culture on the basis of these human qualities and what clubs need to look at is whether kids have these qualities and skills. That way they infiltrate into the club.”  

He added: “You could sit me down for a couple of hours and ask me to think of something negative, I still wouldn’t come with anything. He maintains those qualities and self-monitors his own progress and looks after his own body and ask questions. He’s one out of the box.”  

Little asks for only one thing in return: “when he plays his first game, he better get me a ticket!” 

In tomorrow's edition of Dragons Tales, we'll learn how he dealt with injury setbacks in 2021 and his leadership credentials.