[wpbvideo id=”980452″]
The Evangel men’s basketball team is back in the NAIA National Tournament for the first time since 2015, and in the first year of Head Coach Bert Capel’s tenure.
As he watches his team prepare a trip to the NAIA national tournament, Capel can’t help but feel like his team is right back where it belongs. “There was certainly some potential there, said Capel, “But it took some buy in on the players,” said Capel.
Perhaps that’s because he’s right back where he belongs. Capel played in the NAIA National Tournament himself. Capel’s then-Crusaders’ team won the NAIA Championship in 2002 with a near-perfect 35-1 record.
Being great here at this school is something he talks to his team about. “Oh yeah, he talks about it all the time,” said Cade Coffman, a senior guard at Evangel. “He knows what it takes to build a winning culture, and that’s what he’s trying to do here. He’s done a really good job at it.”
Following his own graduation from Evangel in 2004, Capel sought out a different sort of education.
Learning division one coaching lessons at several schools as an assistant, including three years at Florida State.
He was on the bench when the Seminoles went to the Sweet 16 in 2011. “I would say defensively during my time at Florida State, we take those things and try to use them,” said Capel.
After the coach he worked for was fired in 2019, Capel made a phone call to an old friend, his former Evangel Head Coach, Steve Jenkins. “I said, ‘Hey coach, if we were to come to Springfield just for a year, would you mind if I helped you?'” said Capel. “You don’t have to pay me, you don’t have to do anything.’ And he was gracious enough to let me hang out.”
Coffman remembers that year well. The Mountain Grove grad was used to taking his program to state final four appearances. But his freshman year at Evangel the team won just six games. “It was really hitting me hard like, ‘Man, I don’t know if this is for me, if this is the plan for me,'” said Coffman. “But I saw all these banners surrounding us in the gym. And I said, ‘I have to have at least one before I leave here,’ And I think coach brought that to the table. When he came in my sophomore year he kind of had that attitude.”
What followed was a 16-win season. A ten-win turnaround for the best single-season win improvement in 14 years at Evangel. With Coffman and his fellow seniors Ike Egwu, Pavel Antonov and Edriel Martinborough forming the foundation of this tournament team.
“And then because of Covid we were here another year,” said Capel. “And then Coach Jenkins decided he was going to retire. And then I guess the rest is history.”
Now the team is looking to make history. And get another one of those banners in the gym.
