As North Murray High School prepares for its first year of classes, those who will fill the roles of coaches and athletes in the Mountaineers’ athletic program are already studying what it will take to be ready for their debut.

And as Angela Campbell tries to ready her Lady Mountaineers basketball team for its first season, laying the foundation with drills and camps and competition, she’s well aware that what’s done now will make a big difference in how things go in a few months. But next week, Campbell will have a little help in that effort from someone who became well-known to Tennessee women’s basketball fans earlier this decade.

Just for the record, though — Campbell knew Brittany Jackson long before she was firing 3-pointers for the Lady Vols, who went to a quartet of Final Fours and two national championship games during Jackson’s Tennessee career.

“I actually have known her since she was about 7,” Campbell said. “Her mom was my P.E. teacher in junior high and her mom works with my mom. So I got a phone number and she said she’d do it.”

Jackson will help the Lady Mountaineers tip off their first kids basketball camp by leading the morning session Monday, the first of four days at the camp, which will be held at the Murray County Recreation Center on Hyden-Tyler Rd. Campbell said Jackson — who has played in pro leagues in the United States and abroad — will help campers go through some of the drills North Murray uses, but she’ll also teach them a few things Tennessee-style.

Perhaps most importantly to Campbell, she’ll speak to the campers about what basketball has meant to her — and what it can mean to them.

“We’re just wanting to start a new tradition,” said Campbell, who admitted she was looking for something special to spark the program’s first camp. “I want them to see basketball isn’t just an extracurricular activity. It can open a lot of doors for them. We’re just trying to get them to love the game of basketball.”

Jackson, who earned Southeastern Conference All-Tournament Team honors as a senior and helped the Lady Vols win the 2005 SEC title, has been doing work in broadcasting and modeling lately, Campbell said. But there’s little chance she’s forgotten where basketball has taken her over the years, and that’s the message Campbell hopes the girls ears are open to on Monday.

“What I want them to get out of the camp is what they can have in the future,” Campbell said. “A lot of kids don’t know what basketball can do for them. To me, sports opens up a lot of doors that might not have otherwise.”

Campbell played college basketball at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., Jackson’s hometown, and the coach — an all-district player during high school days at Tennessee’s Polk County — recalled the future Lady Vol’s talent as a prep athlete.

“I watched her play at Bradley Central and I watched her the night she was named Miss Tennessee Basketball,” said Campbell, who added that like “her whole family,” Jackson’s number was retired at Bradley Central, which was formerly known as Bradley County.

The camp, which runs through next Thursday, is for ages 6-14 and scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, with drills and teaching scheduled for the morning and games for the afternoon, Campbell said. The cost is $85 and includes lunch and a T-shirt, with additional siblings charged $15 apiece. Coaches ask that you pre-register by writing to [email protected] or [email protected].

Listening along with the campers on Monday will be the soon-to-be Lady Mountaineers basketball team. But the players will also be doing some of the teaching next week, serving as instructors in what Campbell hopes will be a good exercise in leadership to close the most intense part of their summer practice. (Campbell, who will also coach volleyball this year, will then turn her focus to that sport and let the basketball team make the most of open gym time.)

The Lady Mountaineers, who will play only junior varsity and freshman schedules next year — the school’s first year of classes will include only ninth and 10th graders — have already been to Berry College’s camp, where they went 5-4 and lost by a point to McMinn County, a Class 5A school in Tennessee, Campbell said. Height has been a surprising asset for the young team, which averages around 5 feet, 9 inches, and they’ve played both well and together, the coach added.

“I’m excited about it,” said Campbell, who coached the Gladden Middle School teams the past two years.