This story is part of an ongoing series featuring Basin athletes who have committed to play in college. In case you missed them, be sure to check out our other stories on Mazama volleyball’s Gillian Merhoff and Lost River football’s Connor Dunlea and Joel DeJong.
Randy Denson knows what a college-level skillset looks like on the basketball court.
As a kid, he spent countless days watching his older sister Amy, who became a four-year starter at Arizona State. As a student at Oregon, he was part of the practice squad for the women’s team.
So it shouldn’t be too surprising that it only took him one practice with then-ninth grader Annie Campos to identify her as a bona fide college prospect.
“I knew…that if she kept working hard, there would be an opportunity somewhere,” Denson said.
Campos was the only freshman on the Henley girls basketball team in Denson’s first year as head coach but was essentially a sophomore by the time she and the Hornets got to play that season; the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020-21 campaign to be pushed back to May and June 2021. It was also shortened to 10 games.
Despite playing her first high school “season” after more than a year without seeing game action and in an environment that Denson once described as “a glorified summer league”, Campos flourished. Oregon Tech head coach Joy Lease, who held the same position at Mazama during Campos’ freshman and sophomore seasons, said containing her required significant effort.
“She’s just one of those players that, as an opposing coach, you’ve got to know where she’s at all the time, because at some point she’s coming back to the ball and she’s going to do something with it,” Lease said. “We were planning on how we were going to shut down Annie from the time she was a freshman to the last time I coached against her.”
The player who was once an obstacle to Lease’s teams will now be an asset; Annie Campos signed with Oregon Tech on March 19. Even though a few other programs showed interest, getting her to stay in Klamath Falls didn’t take much convincing.
“The fact that all my family can come watch me is super exciting,” Campos said. “And I get to still be at home where I have younger siblings if I want to come watch them, work with them or do anything like that.”
For Lease, her positive impression of Campos as an opposing player only grew stronger as she became one of her recruits.
“I just have always known she’s just going to be a positive member to our program,” Lease said. “There was really no negative to bringing her on, in my opinion.”
Campos will be the first Klamath Falls native to suit up for the Lady Owls since Megan Morris (who played for Lease at Mazama) graduated in 2019. She joins a program coming off arguably its best year ever; the 2023-24 Lady Owls finished 27-5, recording the second-most wins and highest winning percentage in program history. They also won a game at the NAIA tournament for the third time.
Notably, Oregon Tech returns all but two players next season–including their entire starting lineup. Lease said that will give Campos an opportunity to get acclimated to the college game without having to be “thrown to the wolves right away.”
“I think she has the ability to come in and play,” Lease said. “It’ll just be a matter of how long it will take her to adjust to the speed of the game.”
It may not take very long. Campos dominated in her senior year at Henley, leading the Hornets in every statistical category with 16 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 4.3 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. She was the only unanimous selection to the all-tournament first team at the 4A girls state championships and scored the last four points in Henley’s 41-38 win over No. 1 seed Astoria in the title game.
“She is not afraid to put a team on her back when they need it,” Lease said. “She’s just tenacious. That was probably one of the most impressive things for me…she just keeps coming at you as an opponent.”
Both Lease and Denson highlighted Campos’ leadership and work ethic as attributes they felt would make her a successful college player. Academically, she intends to major in applied mathematics and has aspirations of being a math teacher.
Whatever her freshman year of college brings, Campos indicated that she’s ready to attack it with the same mentality that got her to this point.
“I’m going to get in there and I’m going to work as hard as I can,” Campos said.
Oregon Tech has yet to release their 2024-25 schedule.
