Post by Bro. Askia Musa Afiba on Oct 9, 2004 7:46:21 GMT -5
Bobcats' Capel takes initiative,
lands as NBA assistant coach
www.nba.com/bobcats/
By C. Jemal Horton
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
www.thecharlottepost.com/sports2.html
When Jeff Capel and his wife Jerry were raising their two sons in the 1980s and 90s, they always made sure to fill the boys' ears with one important mantra: Never stop pursuing your dreams.
Charlotte Bobcats assistant coach Jeff Capel autographs basketballs at media day.
photo/calvin ferguson
It was a message that never fell on deaf ears.
The oldest Capel son, Jeff III, went on to play basketball at Duke. He is now 29 and the youngest Division I men's basketball coach in the country at Virginia Commonwealth.
The youngest son, Jason, went on to play basketball at North Carolina, where he ranks among the top 25 in career scoring. He currently plays professional basketball in Japan.
"I'm proud of both of them," said the elder Capel, a Fayetteville State graduate who now is an assistant coach with the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
But here's the neat thing about parenting: At some point, you're probably going to have to live the very message you've been relaying to your children all their lives.
That's where Capel found himself over the summer.
After head-coaching stops at Fayetteville State, N.C. A&T and Old Dominion, Capel was coming off two seasons as head coach of the Fayetteville Patriots of the National Basketball Developmental League. Capel had been successful in the D-League, leading Fayetteville to the finals in his first full season. But there was too much down time in the offseason, which could last as long as six months. That wasn't the way Capel was built.
So Capel decided to follow his own advice. What started out as an attempt to cure his offseason boredom turned into the all-out pursuit of Capel's dream of coaching in the NBA, even if it meant starting out at the bottom.
Capel made the unusual move of e-mailing all 30 NBA teams and volunteering his services.
"I just e-mailed teams and expressed an interest in coming and helping in any way I could," Capel said. "I expressed an interest in helping them with their summer league, helping them with workouts. And Charlotte offered me an opportunity to come up here and participate in their free-agent camp.
"I came up here and (former Bobcats assistant) Sam Mitchell gets promoted to head coach in Toronto, so there's an opening. People say timing is everything, and it is, but I'd also say that when the time comes, you've got to be able to deliver. And I think (Bobcats general manager and coach) Bernie (Bickerstaff) liked what he saw of me up here in the free-agent camp. He invited me to stay up here and help the team get ready for the first summer league, not promising anything. But at the end of that, he said he'd like for me to be a part of the staff."
As one of five assistant coaches, Capel is in charge of working with the Bobcats big men, along with Gary Brokaw. He also will do advance scouting with assistants John-Blair Bickerstaff, who is the head coach's son, and Gary Kloppenburg.
Life has been a whirlwind for Capel since he started working with the Bobcats on July 9. With all that's gone on, including summer leagues in Minnesota and Utah, Capel said he barely had time to go home to Fayetteville and get his affairs in order before moving to Charlotte on Sept. 1.
For about the next year, Capel and his wife will be having a long-distance marriage. Jerry Capel is an assistant principal at Fayetteville's South View High School, and she didn't want to leave her colleagues or her students so close to the beginning of the school year, when her husband got the Bobcats job. In the meantime, Jeff Capel is renting a Charlotte apartment.
"My wife's going to stay there this year and give me an opportunity to find out where we want to permanently reside in Charlotte," Capel said. "I go back and forth to Fayetteville. Up until last weekend, I've gone home every weekend. But now, hopefully, she's going to have to make the trip a little bit. I don't know if I'll have many down days."
At least Capel doesn't have a great learning curve to overcome. His resume has made certain of that, even if this is his first stint in the NBA.
"Coach Capel brings a wealth of knowledge to the game," said Bobcats assistant coach John Outlaw, who formerly was an assistant football coach at N.C. Central. "He's been around for a while, having coached at Fayetteville State and Wake Forest (as an assistant) and Old Dominion. He has a really good rapport with the players. The players respect him. In this sport, that's just so big.
"I think if you can coach, you're going to be fine. The game hasn't changed that much. The players have a little bit. But coach Capel has shown he can coach. I don't think he'll have any problems at all."
For any problems Capel might have, he knows he can talk with one of his former Fayetteville State players, Darrell Armstrong, for any advice. Armstrong, a Gastonia native, now plays for the New Orleans Hornets.
"Darrell and I talk every day, and that helps a lot," Capel said. "We've talked about the egos that come into play in the NBA. In college, you're in total control, but not in the pros."
Capel remembers the day he got his first victory in the D-League:
"After the game, we went back to the hotel, and I told my assistant coach, Sam Worthen, 'Man, I've got to have a cocktail to celebrate this one. Let's go downstairs.'
"As we were going down to the lobby, you could see into the bar. There were four players in there doing shots and chasing it with beer. I was getting ready to jump off the top floor and go down there and start raising hell. Sam touched me and said, 'Jeff, you can't do that. These guys are grown. As long as they don't come to practice drunk, there's really nothing you can say about it.' So, yeah, the pros are a lot different."
But Capel is ready for this challenge. He's excited about it.
Jeff Capel III is pursuing his dream to be the coach of a perennial NCAA championship contender. Jason Capel is hoping that his tour in Japan will lead him to the NBA, where his father now resides.
And the elder Capel?
"I want to be an NBA head coach some day," he said. "I think if you don't have aspirations to improve, you get worse. You don't want to stand still. Bernie's a great guy for me to learn under. He's helping me a great deal. Hopefully, three, four, five years down the road, I'll get a chance to do that myself one day. I'll keep pursuing my dreams."
Now, what else would you expect?
lands as NBA assistant coach
www.nba.com/bobcats/
By C. Jemal Horton
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
www.thecharlottepost.com/sports2.html
When Jeff Capel and his wife Jerry were raising their two sons in the 1980s and 90s, they always made sure to fill the boys' ears with one important mantra: Never stop pursuing your dreams.
Charlotte Bobcats assistant coach Jeff Capel autographs basketballs at media day.
photo/calvin ferguson
It was a message that never fell on deaf ears.
The oldest Capel son, Jeff III, went on to play basketball at Duke. He is now 29 and the youngest Division I men's basketball coach in the country at Virginia Commonwealth.
The youngest son, Jason, went on to play basketball at North Carolina, where he ranks among the top 25 in career scoring. He currently plays professional basketball in Japan.
"I'm proud of both of them," said the elder Capel, a Fayetteville State graduate who now is an assistant coach with the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
But here's the neat thing about parenting: At some point, you're probably going to have to live the very message you've been relaying to your children all their lives.
That's where Capel found himself over the summer.
After head-coaching stops at Fayetteville State, N.C. A&T and Old Dominion, Capel was coming off two seasons as head coach of the Fayetteville Patriots of the National Basketball Developmental League. Capel had been successful in the D-League, leading Fayetteville to the finals in his first full season. But there was too much down time in the offseason, which could last as long as six months. That wasn't the way Capel was built.
So Capel decided to follow his own advice. What started out as an attempt to cure his offseason boredom turned into the all-out pursuit of Capel's dream of coaching in the NBA, even if it meant starting out at the bottom.
Capel made the unusual move of e-mailing all 30 NBA teams and volunteering his services.
"I just e-mailed teams and expressed an interest in coming and helping in any way I could," Capel said. "I expressed an interest in helping them with their summer league, helping them with workouts. And Charlotte offered me an opportunity to come up here and participate in their free-agent camp.
"I came up here and (former Bobcats assistant) Sam Mitchell gets promoted to head coach in Toronto, so there's an opening. People say timing is everything, and it is, but I'd also say that when the time comes, you've got to be able to deliver. And I think (Bobcats general manager and coach) Bernie (Bickerstaff) liked what he saw of me up here in the free-agent camp. He invited me to stay up here and help the team get ready for the first summer league, not promising anything. But at the end of that, he said he'd like for me to be a part of the staff."
As one of five assistant coaches, Capel is in charge of working with the Bobcats big men, along with Gary Brokaw. He also will do advance scouting with assistants John-Blair Bickerstaff, who is the head coach's son, and Gary Kloppenburg.
Life has been a whirlwind for Capel since he started working with the Bobcats on July 9. With all that's gone on, including summer leagues in Minnesota and Utah, Capel said he barely had time to go home to Fayetteville and get his affairs in order before moving to Charlotte on Sept. 1.
For about the next year, Capel and his wife will be having a long-distance marriage. Jerry Capel is an assistant principal at Fayetteville's South View High School, and she didn't want to leave her colleagues or her students so close to the beginning of the school year, when her husband got the Bobcats job. In the meantime, Jeff Capel is renting a Charlotte apartment.
"My wife's going to stay there this year and give me an opportunity to find out where we want to permanently reside in Charlotte," Capel said. "I go back and forth to Fayetteville. Up until last weekend, I've gone home every weekend. But now, hopefully, she's going to have to make the trip a little bit. I don't know if I'll have many down days."
At least Capel doesn't have a great learning curve to overcome. His resume has made certain of that, even if this is his first stint in the NBA.
"Coach Capel brings a wealth of knowledge to the game," said Bobcats assistant coach John Outlaw, who formerly was an assistant football coach at N.C. Central. "He's been around for a while, having coached at Fayetteville State and Wake Forest (as an assistant) and Old Dominion. He has a really good rapport with the players. The players respect him. In this sport, that's just so big.
"I think if you can coach, you're going to be fine. The game hasn't changed that much. The players have a little bit. But coach Capel has shown he can coach. I don't think he'll have any problems at all."
For any problems Capel might have, he knows he can talk with one of his former Fayetteville State players, Darrell Armstrong, for any advice. Armstrong, a Gastonia native, now plays for the New Orleans Hornets.
"Darrell and I talk every day, and that helps a lot," Capel said. "We've talked about the egos that come into play in the NBA. In college, you're in total control, but not in the pros."
Capel remembers the day he got his first victory in the D-League:
"After the game, we went back to the hotel, and I told my assistant coach, Sam Worthen, 'Man, I've got to have a cocktail to celebrate this one. Let's go downstairs.'
"As we were going down to the lobby, you could see into the bar. There were four players in there doing shots and chasing it with beer. I was getting ready to jump off the top floor and go down there and start raising hell. Sam touched me and said, 'Jeff, you can't do that. These guys are grown. As long as they don't come to practice drunk, there's really nothing you can say about it.' So, yeah, the pros are a lot different."
But Capel is ready for this challenge. He's excited about it.
Jeff Capel III is pursuing his dream to be the coach of a perennial NCAA championship contender. Jason Capel is hoping that his tour in Japan will lead him to the NBA, where his father now resides.
And the elder Capel?
"I want to be an NBA head coach some day," he said. "I think if you don't have aspirations to improve, you get worse. You don't want to stand still. Bernie's a great guy for me to learn under. He's helping me a great deal. Hopefully, three, four, five years down the road, I'll get a chance to do that myself one day. I'll keep pursuing my dreams."
Now, what else would you expect?
