A broken ankle sent Dobbins Tech’s Zachary Campbell on a path to hoops stardom

Zachary Campbell didn’t know his ankle was broken, but he was determined to hide the injury from his mother just the same.

Campbell, now a 6-foot-4, do-it-all senior on the basketball court for Murrell Dobbins Tech, was a middle-school football player back then.

His mother, Angela Campbell, had told him, “if you get hurt one more time — no more football.”

So after the game, Campbell walked, or more likely limped, two blocks home, asked his older sister to wrap the injury, and cried in the bathroom.

He couldn’t have imagined that injury would spark a college basketball career. Campbell didn’t start playing basketball until his sophomore year. Earlier this season, he breached 1,000 points. Now, he’s on college coaches’ recruiting radars.

“I don’t know what happened,” Campbell said with a smile before a recent practice. “Ever since [that injury], it’s been basketball every day.”

Just a few years later, Campbell and his current teammates, whom he considers “brothers,” have returned the Mustangs to prominence in the Public League.

» READ MORE: Dobbins Tech boys hope to break decades-long drought and secure Public League title

“Loving basketball and having a family,” Campbell said, “there’s nothing better you could ask for.”

The resilience it takes to hobble home on a fractured ankle likely doesn’t surprise Campbell’s mother.

Campbell’s heart had stopped briefly just before he was born in a Washington, D.C., hospital, forcing an emergency cesarean section. At 11 pounds, 13 ounces, Campbell, who was 24½ inches tall at birth, had gotten stuck in the birth canal and was in distress.

In a telephone interview with The Inquirer, his mother said doctors asked her to choose between her life and her son’s. “Of course, his life meant more to me than my own,” she said between tears. “I almost lost him, but he was a fighter in every sense.”

When she awoke in recovery, a nurse said, “ ‘That boy is going to be something special. As big as he is, he’s going to be something.’ ”

“And he’s been soaring ever since,” Angela Campbell said.

As a toddler, she explained, Campbell went straight from sitting up to running. “He never really just walked,” she said, laughing.

So when he broke his ankle, she wasn’t surprised when he struggled to sit still.

Doctors said the break was clean, so it didn’t require surgery, but Campbell was supposed to rest. Instead, he went to every football game to support his teammates.

That team-first mentality would have fit well with former Dobbins coach Rich “Yank” Yankowitz, who died last week.

Yankowitz, 80, died Jan. 19. He retired in 2005 with 486 wins, the most in Public League history. His 1985 Pub title team — led by Doug Overton, Bo Kimble, and Hank Gathers — is still revered in the city.

In 1998, Yankowitz and Dobbins, led by current Mastery North coach Terrence “Nip” Cook, ended Simon Gratz’s 107-game regular-season winning streak.

In 2005, the late Daily News writer Ted Silary wrote that Yankowitz was known for countless hours in service of his players.

Disheem “DaDa” Butler, one of the heroes of the ‘98 Dobbins win against Gratz, told Silary he was happy for Yankowitz: “He’s a great guy. In school. Out of school. On the court. Off the court. If you’re looking for comfort, he’ll give it to you. If you’re looking for somebody to back you up, you’ve got that, too.”

Current Dobbins coach Derrick Stanton ensures that the legacy lives on. The Mustangs made a surprise playoff run last season, losing to eventual Public League champ Imhotep Charter in the semifinals.

Every time Stanton holds practice, he says, seeing Yankowitz’s name on the bottom of the scoreboard reminds him of his mission.

“I say, ‘Hey, I can’t take the day off,’ ” Stanton said before a recent practice. “‘I can’t let these guys take the day off because we’re not just playing for ourselves. We’re playing for something that [Yankowitz] built over the course of decades. We have to do our part to keep that legacy going.”

If Campbell leaves a legacy at Dobbins, loyalty should be among the themes.

Campbell had a breakout sophomore season under Stanton, who then had Kimble as an assistant coach.

When Kimble left to coach Overbrook the next season, however, some urged Campbell to follow.

“He said, ‘I’m not leaving my teammates,’ ” Angela Campbell recalled. “‘I’m not leaving Stanton.’ ”

Campbell then made another leap as a junior, earning second-team all-Public League honors. He gives the credit to Kareem Diaz, who is now a freshman guard at Kutztown University.

Campbell says hard work with and encouragement from Diaz, a first-team all-Pubic League selection last season, helped him improve. Current senior Saleem Hudson, Campbell said, was also instrumental in his improvement.

Campbell transformed himself from a raw freshman who was athletic enough to dunk in Crocs to a senior captain who now anchors the team’s offense and defense.

On Tuesday, however, Dobbins (12-6, 5-2) fell to visiting Constitution, 90-79. Only time will tell if the Mustangs can recover and make another playoff run.

One thing is certain: Campbell is poised to use basketball to change his life and the lives of his younger siblings.

“That’s actually why I chose to [play] instead of just being in the streets,” he said, “because then they would’ve just followed behind me. So by going to college, it’ll help them follow the right path.”