The nation's top-scoring team, which is ranked No. 12 in the country, calls Buies Creek, N.C. home.  That same team is the only one in the country to rank among the top 10 in both home runs (5th) and stolen bases (8th).
 
That program has produced five-straight Big South Conference titles and made five-consecutive NCAA Regional appearances.
 
In that five-season span, Campbell has won nine of a possible 10 league trophies, including all five regular season crowns and four of the last five tournament championships.
 
What makes this team – which has averaged 39 wins over the last five full seasons and heads into this weekend's NCAA Columbia Regional sporting a 44-13 record, plus the country's fourth-best winning percentage (.772) – so special?
 
Just ask the Big South player of the year.
 
"We've developed a culture where we're a tight-knit group and through that we are able to play for each other and not an individual playing for himself," said redshirt junior outfielder Lawson Harrill.
 
The architect of that success is Justin Haire, who is in his 16th year in Buies Creek and ninth as head coach.
 
Haire arrived in Buies Creek in the spring of 2007 as an assistant coach to Greg Goff and helped resurrect a once proud Campbell Baseball program.
 
Assuming control of a squad that had produced only two winning records in the previous 19 seasons, Goff and Haire began a slow build.  By the time Goff left for the head job at Louisiana Tech after the 2014 campaign, the Camels had produced three-consecutive 40-win seasons, capped by Campbell's first NCAA postseason trip in 24 years.
 
How did we get here? 
 
Haire is quick to give credit to those who came before him, from former Athletics Director Stan Williamson, who hired Goff and his staff in 2007 to A.D. Bob Roller, who entrusted Haire with his first head coaching job at the age of 34 in 2014.  The list continues – with credit to University President Brad Creed and A.D. Hannah Bazemore for their leadership.
 
"From administration to assistant coaches to players and staff, the last 16 years have been filled with some of the best people that I've been around in my life," said Haire, who has been honored as Big South coach of the year three-straight times.  "That's the special thing about Buies Creek and Campbell.  In any successful organization, you can't be successful without really good people. That's where it starts."
 
While the Camels re-gained respectability a decade ago, including a 49-win campaign in 2013, under Haire's leadership a Big South contender has turned into one of the nation's most dangerous opponents.
 
Not only did Campbell win 110 of 140 Big South regular season games over the last five full campaigns, but the Camels also reached regional finals in 2019 at Greenville and 2021 in Starkville, Miss.  In May, three Campbell alumni played in the major leagues and two – Cedric Mullins and Zach Neto – appear on 2023 All-Star Game ballots.
 
In that same span, the Camels have produced six top-10 round selections in the MLB draft, including a trio of first rounders – Seth Johnson (2019), Neto (2022) and Thomas Harrington (2022).
 
The influx of talent, plus a 59-18 record at Jim Perry Stadium over the last three years, has drawn record crowds to Buies Creek.  The Camels won 20 of 24 home games this season and the community noticed.  Campbell set program records for total (20,659) and average (860) attendance.  Four of the top-10 crowds in JPS history packed the park this spring, including a season-high 1292 on Apr. 21.
 
Still, one might ask how does a small, private school located in a rural county attract and develop enough talented players to produce these results?
 
"It really started to turn for us when we started to embrace what this place is," said Haire.  "We're not bright lights, big city, in the middle of downtown Raleigh.  We're not a suburb of Raleigh.  What we do have is the opportunity to develop without distraction. What we do have is a great academic institution. What we do have are people who are going to care for you and love you and invest in your well-being while you're here, whether that's as a coach, staff member or player."
 
But don't just take the head coach's word.  Ask the players.
 
Jarrod Belbin enters the Columbia Regional just one homer shy of becoming the first player in Camel history to club 20 home runs (19) and steal at least 20 bases (25).  The native of South Morang, Australia wound his way to Buies Creek after playing at Arizona Western Community College and has helped the Camels win back-to-back regular season and tournament championships.
 
"During the recruiting process, these guys stuck with me during the Covid year, and I just knew they really wanted me," said Belbin.  "I wanted to go to a place where a team actually cared about me.  They showed that. I love it and wouldn't want to choose anywhere else.  It's a family and a home away from home. I come to the field every time and know that I'm going to see all my brothers, and the memories I made here are going to last forever."
 
Cade Kuehler is one of the top collegiate right-handed pitching prospects and he chose Campbell for its competitive atmosphere when he decided to join the Camels in 2020 out of Cuthbertson High School in Waxhaw, N.C.
 
"Coach Haire does a great job of recruiting people," said Kuehler, a two-time all-conference hurler who was invited to play with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team in 2022.  "People who are here to get better.  Recruiting those people and pairing them with great facilities, great coaches and great opportunities breeds great athletes."
 
Authenticity is a big word in Coach Haire's vocabulary, one that imbues every principle on which the program stands.
 
"When we lean into who we are authentically, that connects with people," said Haire.  "When that connects, and you have a process to develop them as human beings, staff members and players, good things tend to follow."
 
Ten Camels have been named Big South player, pitcher or freshman of the year in the last five seasons, including 2022 winners Neto and right-hander Harrington, who was taken in the first round of the MLB draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
 
Pitcher Matt Marksberry (Atlanta) reached the big leagues in 2015 and Jake Smith (San Diego) followed one year later.  Two-time All-American Ryan Thompson, the 2014 Big South tournament MVP, pitched in the 2020 World Series for the Tampa Bay Rays.
 
Cedric Mullins was the Baltimore Orioles' opening day center fielder in 2019 and two years later started in the All-Star Game.  Later in 2021, Mullins became the first player in Orioles franchise history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a year and won a Silver Slugger Award.
 
Neto was a two-time Big South player of the year before being selected by the Los Angeles Angels with the 13th overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft.  On April 15, 2023, Neto became to first player from the '22 draft to reach the bigs when he started at shortstop for the Angels.
 
"It gives me chills every day," said Haire of seeing his alumni go on to pro ball.  "You look up and Zach Neto's got two web gems last night. He's face timing me from Yankee Stadium, and Cedric's calling me to say, 'hey, you got somebody coming tonight, how can I help them with a signed bat, ball, a picture' and a bunch of other guys in the minors. Darn near half the big leaguers in school history have come in the last seven years.  To be a part of that and have the relationships with those guys is just amazing.  They're the same guys who were living in the dorms or apartments here and playing out on this field.  They're the same guys."
 
Authenticity. Development. Work ethic.  Those words are found throughout successful organizations in and out of sports.
 
But "vulnerability?"
 
Haire points to that term as one that he has grown into during his time in charge of the Camel program.
 
"To me, the first piece to really connect with people is having a real vulnerability," said Haire.  "When you're an assistant it's easy to have all the answers because you don't actually have to make all the decisions.  It's easy to see one view or piece and not see the ripple effects of all your decisions.  For me, being able to do that is being open and honest.  I must allow myself to be vulnerable, make mistakes and know that I'm going to be wrong sometimes.  Sometimes our players are going to have to overcome that, sometimes our staff is going to have to overcome that.  But I think the connective piece comes from them knowing that I truly care about them, and that I'm truly trying to do what's right by our program and by them individually, and that we're going to try to do it the right way at the most elite level that we possibly can."
 
The sustained success of the Campbell Baseball program is easily recorded through wins – Haire's 284 are the most of any head coach in Fighting Camel history – along with titles, postseason appearances, individual accolades and professional contracts signed.
 
Coming off a 2022 season when the Camels won Big South regular season and tourney titles, produced another 40-plus win record and two first-round draft choices, one might predict a falloff this spring.  Instead, the Camels notched the second-most wins in a year in program history and generated the highest national ranking ever by a CU baseball team.
 
Having six all-conference performers return from a 41-win team helped, but Haire believes that each season is its own entity.
 
"Our players have done a tremendous job of just wanting to carve out their own identity, their own path and their own ride," said Haire.  "A lot of these guys were on the club the last year and understand what it takes to win at the highest level, but they know every year's a different opportunity.  Their willingness to not rely on the past, or be defined by the past, be themselves and develop their own identity as a club has been impressive."
 
That view extends to the coaching and support staff.
 
"From a staff standpoint, any time you have success, much less sustained success, it can be easy to be stale and be kind of content with what you're doing," said Haire.  "To our staff's credit, they have continued to push, scratch and claw to be better for our guys and our program, to try to put us in a better position to get us off to a fast start, get us to as close to midseason form as we possibly can, and to continue to be on the cutting edge from a developmental standpoint.  I think the combination of that has led us to where we are today."
 
Haire clearly recognizes that the foundation of the program extends well beyond his arrival in Buies Creek.  He has fostered relationships with alumni from each of the program's competitive eras – from the junior college days to the NAIA era, early Division I independent stages, Big South and ASUN membership phases.
 
"Brotherhood" is the term that Haire uses to refer to ALL Campbell baseball players and staff, both current and past members.
 
"We are just trying to connect the dots between building a program that focuses not just on the recent success but one that people who played here 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago could attach to and say, 'I'm really proud to have put on the Black & Orange, I'm really proud to say that's where I played baseball, I'm really proud – no matter their experience while they were here – to say that I'm an alumni of that place,'" said Haire.  "Over just the last three days, you go down the line of decades, decades and decades of people who have texted me, called me and emailed me, 'Coach we're so proud of you, let's go make some noise!' It's unbelievable. It's not because of me, it's because there are tremendous people here. It's a tremendous place that's really special.  Our alumni have laid the foundation and helped us build a program that a lot of people can really be proud of."
 
Former major league All-Star and 1970 Cy Young winner Jim Perry and his wife Daphne have been major supporters of the program.  The stadium is named for the 1959 Campbell graduate and the Jim and Daphne Perry Pavilion houses the team's offices, meeting rooms, clubhouse, athletic training and other facilities.
 
Scott Evans pitched for the Camels from 1985-88 and his family has also supported the program in various ways.
 
"One of the really good things Justin has done is bridging the generations between those really good teams in the '80s, '90s and 2000s, leading up these kids today," said Evans.  "He's done a good job letting them know we were part of starting the program building the winning tradition.  He's a great relationship person and he gets the big picture of making sure he takes those guys who played here in the past and brings them into the program.  It's one big family.  Justin's created the Brotherhood, and that really sums it up."
 
Sustained success.  A real connection with the Buies Creek community and Campbell alumni.  More championships.  Another postseason trip. A top-15 national ranking.
 
"Somebody the other day asked me what's my dream job," said Haire.  "This is my dream job, getting to do this and being around young people and seeing them be able to pursue their dreams and become awesome at what they're doing, whether that's pro baseball or whatever they're doing – doctor, lawyer, business person, husband, father – whatever that is, that's my dream job!  We get a chance to do some great things every single day."