Over the summer, Jamestown High School senior Tommy Campion's days were pretty predictable.
In the morning, he would attend JHS basketball coach Ben Drake's ''Commit to Success'' conditioning program. By noon, he'd be at the Jamestown YMCA where he'd work on his game for another three hours and then head over to Jefferson Middle School early enough so he could fire off hundreds of jump shots before his summer league game.
Every time the shooting machine - called The Gun - returned the ball to him, Campion repeated the same play-by-play to himself.
Article Photos
Jamestown’s Tommy Campion drives to the basket against Frontier in last season’s Section 6 Class AA semifinal game at Buffalo State College.
P-J photo by Scott Kindberg
It's a tie game, the clock is winding down, I have the ball at the top of the key, (my teammates) have cleared out and I pull up and shoot a (3-pointer).
''He doesn't lack for confidence,'' Drake said after running the Red Raiders through a practice late Thursday afternoon. ''He's a man after my own heart, because he's never met a shot he didn't like.''
But there's more to Campion than jumpers from the arc.
In fact, as Jamestown prepares for its season opener Dec. 8 against Williamsville South at the Cataract Classic in Niagara Falls, the reigning Post-Journal Player of the Year combines a work ethic - on and off the court - that puts him among the finest players in school history.
''I think Tommy is the ultimate role model,'' Drake said.
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The 2011-12 season didn't end the way Campion or Drake had planned. The Red Raiders led Niagara Falls, 42-31, early in the fourth quarter only to lose, 48-45, when Campion's game-tying 3-point attempt from the corner at the Buffalo State Sports Arena bounced off the rim, denying them a third straight Section 6 championship.
It was a bitter pill for Campion to swallow.
Although he would earn third-team All-Western New York and seventh-team Class AA all-state honors, the nightmare in March was a huge motivating factor during summer workouts with Jamestown assistant coaches Maceo Wofford and Ken Ricker.
''When I would get tired, (Wofford would) tell me, 'Remember how you felt after that game,''' Campion said. ''I don't want to let the team down again this year.''
With that as motivation, Campion, Jamestown's only senior, hopes to exceed his efforts of last year during which he averaged 18.6 points per game and drilled 48 3-pointers. He is also among the school's all-time leaders in many categories, including career points. By the end of this season, he will likely become just the eighth player in school history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
''I never set out in a season to accomplish personal records,'' he said. ''I want to do whatever I need to do to help my team. I've been playing for so long, the (numbers) just started to accumulate.''
A part of the Red Raider program since he served as a manager while still in elementary school, Campion remembers watching former JHS standouts Mike Maisto and Fran Lantigua throw down dunks during practice. He also has fond memories of guards Marcus McAffee and Carlos Rivera giving opponents fits.
''They were only 5-5, but they knew how to play,'' Campion said.
Learning from the best, he later became a contributor in Jamestown's run to the New York State Public High School Class AA championship game as a sophomore and then carried the torch for the program after his brother, Joey, and Darin Butts graduated, and Jaysean Paige took his talents to a Kentucky high school.
''Everybody left, (Tommy) knew that he was going to have to be the guy and I think that's when he really started to take that role seriously,'' Drake said. ''He was in the gym every day for hours.
''I think his work ethic is over the top.''
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Campion, who is ranked in the top 10 of his class, says he plans to play basketball in college, and Hobart and Rochester are the schools he's strongly considering. His course of study will center around history and political science.
''I'm really big on that,'' he said.
Although he enjoys watching SportsCenter, on ESPN, Campion has a particular interest in current events, reads books on early American history and the Civil War and just completed a tome entitled ''100 Essential Thinkers.''
''It's about 100 philosophers whose ideas have shaped the world,'' said Campion, who would like to become a lawyer one day.
For now, though, he'll concentrate on his studies, his hoops and his desired quest to help the Red Raiders claim a sectional title.
''Nothing is given to you,'' he said. ''You have to work for it. ... Sports is a perfect example of that.''