Ed Camp was finishing up a round of golf near his New Jersey home when he received the news that his high school basketball coach, Ken Cross, had died.
Camp played basketball for Cross at Saint Cecilia High School in the early 1970s. He graduated from the Catholic school in Englewood, New Jersey in 1973.
“I owe a lot to him for teaching me the right things in life,” Camp said. “He was brutally honest and very tough.”
Coach Cross, who was 82, died Monday, April 13 at his home in White Lake. A celebration of life service is set for Tuesday, April 21 at 11 a.m. at Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Lumberton. He coached at Tar Heel High School, West Bladen Bladen High School, East Bladen High School, Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy and Tar Heel Middle School during his time in Bladen County.
You may not recognize the name Ed Camp, but if you have watched National Football League games in the first two decades of this century you might have hollered a few choice words at him.
Camp officiated in the NFL for 22 years, retiring in 2022 after serving as an alternate official and shadowing Sean McVay in Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. He was the down judge in Super Bowl LIII between the Rams and New England Patriots in 2019.
After spending a couple of seasons playing for a hard-nosed and young high school head coach in Cross, listening to the barbs of NFL fans probably was a piece of cake.
Cross was the varsity basketball coach and junior varsity baseball coach when Camp was at Saint Cecilia.
“He was a tough guy,” Camp said of Cross. “He wasn’t pressured by anybody. He had rules. This was 53 years ago.
“I was a good kid. I was very coachable. He instilled in me the basics, but the thing is he wanted to win and he said that all the time, sometimes to a fault.”
Those who played for Cross know how important practice time was to him. Unfortunately, Wednesday nights at Saint Cecilia was Bingo Night, a fundraiser for the school. Since the gymnasium had to be set up in the afternoon that meant no basketball practice on Wednesdays. It led to a falling out with the administration, Camp recalled, and Cross began his long coaching journey that included stops in Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania before he found his way to Tar Heel High School in 1990.
If you watched Ken Cross on the sidelines at a basketball game in Bladen County, you know how intense he could be, hollering, gesturing, ripping off his jacket, pulling off his tie and making certain the game officials gave his teams a fair shake. Or, at least what he felt was a fair shake.
Believe it or not, Cross may have actually mellowed by the time he arrived in Bladen County.
Camp and Cross kept in touch over the years. Camp recalled Cross telling him about working at summer basketball camps featuring former NBA coaches Cotton Fitzsimmons and Hubie Brown.
“I noticed after he told me that he met Hubie Brown that he had changed a little bit,” Camp said. “I knew probably for the better. He was always holding us to a higher standard. He was tough to deal with, but it was good for me.
“He told me that what he learned from Hubie Brown was that you have to keep your best players happy. Now, coming from Coach Cross, that was way out of the ballpark. It was his way or the highway.”
Camp’s former high school teammates couldn’t believe it.
As the two became friends over the years, Camp saw a softer side of Ken Cross. He always encouraged his players to read, to study, to respect others, to honor their parents and family.
From Saint Cecilia’s Ed Camp in the early 1970s to the likes of West Bladen’s Wayne McDonald and Rodd Baxley on the 2008 NCHSAA 2A championship team, to D.J. Mason, who went on to be a standout at Campbell University, to those who played at Tar Heel Middle School and every player along his coaching journey, nearly all will tell you that Ken Cross was a positive influence on their life.
It wasn’t easy playing for Ken Cross. He was demanding. Maybe he did mellow a bit over the years, but it still remained his way or the highway.
But his players knew that Ken Cross loved them, wanted the best for them and took tremendous pride in each of them long after he was no longer their basketball coach. He would always be their mentor.
Rest in peace, Coach. Yours was a life well lived.
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