This was to be the year for Braden Campbell at the University of Virginia.

A senior on the defensive line. A contributor since his freshman season. Stronger. Faster. Smarter. Mature.

It was his time to shine.

But things change, and Campbell knows that more than anyone these days.

His journey has twisted and turned like the roads around his hometown of Slippery Rock.

Injuries to both wrists have changed his focus. No longer shooting for NFL glory, he's shooting to improve the fortunes of The Covenant School's defense and to raise his young family.

"It puts it all in perspective," Campbell said from his Charlottesville, Va., home. "Having a family has really helped me move on with my life."

Life is good for Campbell these days. He is finishing up his degree at Virginia in religious studies, is married to high school sweetheart Erica Smith and is raising a 5-month-old daughter, Elizabeth Ann.

He also has been the defensive coordinator for The Covenant School, a small, private high school almost across the street from the Virginia campus.

"It's fun to be back in the game at the level where they play for fun more than anything else," Campbell said. "They play because they love it."

That's how Campbell played at Slippery Rock High School, where he was a dominant force on both the offensive and defensive lines.

He was a first-team all-state performer during his senior season with the Rockets and, despite a nagging wrist injury, was heavily recruited.

Campbell, who put 285 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame, ended up at Virginia with former New York Jets coach Al Groh and was one of only five true freshmen in 2002 to play in every game for the Cavaliers.

But then the injuries caught up with him.

Campbell didn't know it at the time, but the screws, placed in his right wrist during high school to stabilize the joint, were boring their way into the bone because of the constant jolts.

He thought the pain came from the buildup of scar tissue. He was wrong.

Things got worse.

During his sophomore season, he tore three ligaments in his left wrist, but he played through it. By the end of the season, Campbell had to have major reconstructive surgery on both wrists.

His left wrist was the worst. Because of the pounding it took throughout the season with no tendons healthy enough to hold the intricate parts of the joint together properly, surgeons had to reshape several bones so they would fit together.

Campbell doesn't have full range of motion in either wrist. He never will.

"They are both chronic," Campbell said. "There is nothing they can do now to make them better."

That put his football career in peril before his junior season.

The team doctor told him during spring practice to hang up his cleats.

In desperation, Campbell moved from defensive end to offensive tackle with the hopes of extending his playing career.

"I refused to accept it," Campbell said. "It's hard to accept when you can still move around well and run. You think of careers ending because of legs, not hands, but you can't play football very well without hands."

Campbell, though, pressed on. He went to camp in August, but soon he and the coaching staff realized he never would play at the level he or the team needed.

"I was hoping for some kind of miracle," Campbell said. "I was hoping that I would just wake up one morning healthy and be ready to go."

It didn't happen.

Team physicians told him it wasn't a matter of if, but when he would have to stop playing.

Campbell met with Groh in early August 2004 and told him he could not play anymore.

"It hurt pretty bad," Campbell said. "Football was always something I did. I have always had a different kind of love for the game than what I see from other people."

Groh wanted to keep Campbell with the team in some capacity.

But Campbell balked. He didn't want to videotape games. He didn't want to be a shadow in the corner, hanging on to something he had lost.

"I didn't want to be a token member of the team," Campbell said. "I can't sit there and watch a game. I've never been able to do that."

Virginia's loss was The Covenant School's gain.

Eagles head football coach Mark Sanford is a Virginia alum and offered Campbell a job on his staff.

Campbell jumped at the opportunity.

In his two seasons as defensive coordinator, The Covenant School is 8-11. This season, the Eagles were 3-7, winning their final two games despite having just 14 players on the roster.

"Braden has been a gold mine for us," Sanford said. "He coaches with a lot of passion, with the same kind of intensity he played with. He is very knowledgeable. We are blessed to have him.

"It's got to be tough on him," Sanford added. "Had (his wrist injuries) not happened, he'd be playing on Sundays."

For now, Campbell is content to coach on Friday nights.

But the allure of returning to Slippery Rock with his young family is strong. He might come back to the area after he graduates from Virginia.

Sanford said if Campbell wanted to pursue a coaching career, it wouldn't be long before he would be in charge of a program.

"I've told him if he ever decided to do this as a career, he has the gifts," Sanford said. "You can tell who's going to be a good coach and who should be doing something else, and Braden is going to be a very good coach."

Campbell is humble. He was when he played and he is now as a coach. He isn't sure what he wants to do in the future, but hasn't ruled out roaming some sideline again someday.

For now, he's focused on what really matters to him: his family and his new life.

"I'm coaching now just to do it," Campbell said. "Being a head coach is not a big goal for me in the near future. It may be later down the road. My family is most important."