Coach Christopher Capannola, also known as Coach Cap, comes to school every day to teach PE here at Meridian. He wakes up, drinks coffee, and thinks about how good the Sabers were in the 90s. He has always been a diehard fan of his teams back in upstate New York.
Coach Cap has been working in Physical Education for years, but coaching drew him to the job. In the 90s, you could only coach if you taught at that school. He found a new sport, basketball, when he showed up at George Mason in the mid 90s after playing baseball for years.
Coach Cap played baseball during his childhood, and he played Division one at Niagara in New York. He always knew he wanted to coach, but none of the sports he played as a kid were available. Basketball was the first sport to hire him, and he ran with it.
“I wanted to learn it. It was kind of a challenge to me,” Coach Cap said.
Coach Cap was a good athlete, which helped him through the early stages of coaching a new team. He excelled at baseball when he was in high school.
“I was a big fish in a small pond,” Coach Cap explained.
Playing sports helps you to navigate life with most of the aspects of life. Division one baseball woke Coach Cap up on how hard D1 athletics really is.
He realized that he wasn’t as good as he thought he was, growing up in his tiny area. Everyone in college was a star in their small town too, so it’s an all star team of everyone in the area. It helped him battle adversity when he approached coaching. Baseball in college for him was a struggle.
“You realize you’re going to have to deal with your situation every day, so you get a little bigger,” Coach Cap said.
His favorite part about coaching throughout the years was how it has allowed him to get to know the kids.
“I always like a relationship with my guys,” Coach Cap said.
It was easier to be close with a group of guys of 15 on a basketball team compared to a football roster of 50. Having a close relationship with the players helped him guide his team to more wins. It also allowed him to coach more freely, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each student over 20 years.
Finally, his coaching came to an end after the 2018-19 basketball season. His time at George Mason came to an end after 20 years at the helm of the program.
“We were moving up a division, moving schools, and my boys are getting older. I’ve coached it for 30 something years, and it was time to move on,” Coach Cap pointed out.
He had a great year to end his final season, making it to the elite eight. He thought it would be a good time to step away and enjoy some other hobbies he’s had. His main focus all these years was on coaching.
Since he has stepped away from sports, Coach Cap has begun to enjoy teaching more.
“The kids keep me feeling younger, and I still enjoy teaching them,” Coach Cap said.
The kids keep him engaged, as he has only a few years left teaching at this school. The life lessons he learned from playing college baseball to becoming a coach for two decades makes him feel successful in life. When one door closes, another one will open.
