Cappel says goodbye to coaching football

BRAIDWOOD — The cowbell has grown silent.

After a dozen years at the helm of Reed-Custer and 36 years overall patrolling the sidelines during the fall football seasons, veteran Comets coach Dean Cappel recently turned in his letter of resignation.

"I'm an old-timer and it is just time," said Cappel. "As you have probably noticed when I try to walk on the football field, I don't walk right. I am looking at some surgery on my knee. In fact, my doctor says I have been waiting three years too long. So now, with my retirement, I am going to have it done this spring."

In another reflection of being an "old-timer," Cappel's decision to walk away was reiterated in a hand-written letter to the media.

"As you get older, you take the victories for granted and the losses really linger," Cappel wrote. "I will miss the grind from June to November, but it is time to hand the job over to someone else and catch up with my wife, family and grandchildren."

Long-time Reed-Custer Athletic Director Skip Tarran said, "I have known Dean Cappel for a long time, since the mid-70s. When he came here, he made an impact on all of our students, not just the football players. He has been a hard worker. Illinois [high school] football will be poorer without him. And we are richer because we have had Dean here for the last 12 years."

Reed-Custer has been the last stop in a circuitous journey that has carried Cappel and his family from Grundy County and the Kankakee area to a stone's throw from the Mississippi River in The Gem City of Quincy.

A graduate of Tinley Park High School, where he was a three-sport athlete (football, basketball and baseball); Cappel played football at Indiana State University, from which he graduated in 1972.

"I started my career as an assistant [football coach] at Oak Forest," Cappel recalled. "Then, I got the call in 1977 to be the head coach at Herscher where I spent seven good years. Then I moved on to Quincy because I wanted to coach at a big school. It was a challenge because Quincy had not won a game in five years. But we had a winning record [5-4] my second year there and made the playoffs [getting to the quarterfinals with a 7-3 ledger in 6A, which was the largest class at that time].

"Then my wife got sick and we moved back to the area and I coached at Bradley-Bourbonnais for four years [1987 to 1990 where his teams went 24-15]," added Cappel. "Then I got out of football and teaching because I was burned out. I actually didn't teach for eight years."

His sabbatical from coaching did not last that long.

"The principal at Clifton Central called me because I had coached his son at Herscher," said Dean. "They were having a reduction-in-force at Clifton and they needed to hire a football coach. I had six good years there [going 51-13 and getting to the quarterfinals four times]. We got beat in '96 in the semifinals 6-0 by LeRoy, which went on to win the state championship. And we had a chance late in that game to pull it out but couldn't get the job done."

That led Cappel to Braidwood.

"I got here and it has been kind of a rebuilding job," explained Cappel. "Actually, we are not exactly where I expected us to be now but I think we have turned the corner. We have been fighting for the conference title the last several years."

Including Interstate Eight Conference titles in both 2006 and 2008. The Comets qualified for the playoffs five times in Cappel's 12 seasons, including four occasions over the past five seasons. And his first appearance with the 1999 squad was the first time Reed-Custer had played in the postseason since 1986.

Cappel wound up his 31 years with 196 wins against 118 losses.

"But I couldn't have done that with a lot of good kids and a lot of good assistant coaches," added Cappel.

The good kids and the good assistant coaches helped Cappel be named to the Illinois High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2007.

"It's a great honor," admitted Cappel. "I remember back when I started out and had to coach against all the old timers. I thought, wow, that will never be me. But now I am in a select group."

Even with the Hall of Fame credentials, the naysayers were never too far away.

"I am sure that one of the criticisms that people brought out about me was the fact that I kept changing systems ... that I did not stay with one system throughout the years," Cappel said. "But sometimes there were problems with low numbers. And I had to coach the way that the talent that I had allowed me to. And I wasn't afraid to do that. There were certain things that we kept in the system over the years but we kept adding new elements."

One thing for certain.

"In the Interstate Eight [Conference], if you were not ready to play your best on any Friday night, you would be in for a long evening," Cappel said. "There's no secrets in the Interstate and there is a lot of parity. It was similar to when I started out at Herscher. We were in the Kankakee Valley [Conference]. We had teams in there like Momence, Bishop McNamara and Clifton Central. We were playing in a rivalry game every week.

"And it seemed like that in the Interstate Eight," added Cappel. "With us going to divisions now, you missed a couple of teams every year. But you would play nine of the 12 schools every year. You got to know each other so well. There were a lot of veteran coaches in the I-8 and if you didn't take time to cross all your Ts and dot all your Is, your chances of winning were not good.

"This year, Wilmington was well above the rest of the league but after that, you could throw a blanket over about six or seven other teams," said Cappel. "That's what made coaching in the I-8 so tough. The competition was so tough. If the other team caught you in the wrong scheme, that one mistake could cost you the game. Usually just a handful of plays would decide a lot of the games."

Back to the numbers game.

"We have been fighting the numbers game it seems like every year since I got here at Reed-Custer," said Cappel. "We tell our football players that they are a special group. Take pride and be a warrior. Our kids here, just like every other school, put in a lot of time. And not just from August to November. We start in June and all the kids have to buy in. We are lucky here and have the Field House. That means we never take a day off but that can only help our mental attitude."

Cappel said there was also another key factor as to his announcing that he was walking away from football.

"My family has been slighted," explained Cappel. "I have three grandkids now and I have decided to make it a clean break. I have been married to my wife, Connie, for 40 years. We met in high school. She attended Oak Forest. Thank God, she fell in love with me. The people at our football games over the years could hear someone ringing that cowbell. It was her, shaking the cowbell the whole time."