Welcome to Summer Camp
America's Got Talent, and for This Basketball Assistant Coach, It's a Long Quest to Find It

By Zach Berman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 11, 2008

PHILADELPHIA -- Chris Caputo walks through a lobby scattered with college basketball coaches in a plush downtown hotel just after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, searching for a place to buy hot tea and a quick bite for breakfast.

The George Mason University assistant coach has a 16-hour day ahead of him watching high school basketball prospects -- and making sure they see him watching them -- and he's still determining his schedule. He needs to scout players and teams at both Philadelphia University and the College of New Jersey -- locations separated by about 40 miles -- while navigating a route he does not know in a car he's hardly driven.

All he knows at this point is he needs hot tea and a cup of fruit, because it will be a long day, just like the previous few days and the next few to come.

"You think they pulled the car up?" Caputo asks as he walks.

"How do we get to Philly U?" he continues.

"What time is it?"

These are all rhetorical questions. He gives no time to answer, instead moving on to his next thought during another morning in the life of a Division I assistant basketball coach during the NCAA's 20-day July evaluation period. Per NCAA rules, Caputo is not allowed to comment on players, but this month he needs to see and assess as many as possible.

This is Caputo's fourth summer on the scene recruiting for George Mason, where he has worked for seven years. His week started at a junior college tournament in Tulsa, was interrupted by a missed flight connection in Chicago and resumed with a standby flight to Newark. He arrived at his destination in Trenton, N.J., at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, less than six hours before his next scouting assignment.

On Wednesday, he enters the Reebok All-American Camp at Philadelphia University's gymnasium at 8:31 along with coaches from every major conference. The standard wardrobe for both assistant and head coaches are shirts with their school's colors and logo, khaki shorts and sneakers.

Two courts in the gym feature a series of organized games involving about 150 players. A set of bleachers sits at one end of the gym, and another is set up between the two courts. This is the most coveted spot, as coaches who stand along the top row can effectively watch two games at once.

"You always need to be watching everybody," Caputo says, taking his place at the top row of the middle bleacher.

The rows closest to the court are filled with prominent head coaches. Wide-eyed players peek toward the sidelines during stoppages of play.

Caputo glances through a book the camps sell coaches for between $200 and $250. The book includes biographies and contact information of every prospect in the tournament, including cellphone number and e-mail address.

His BlackBerry buzzes, vibrating on the bench beside him. Throughout the morning, Caputo complains about a problem with his device that automatically deletes e-mails and text messages. Many coaches have their PDAs holstered to their shorts, regularly yanking them out and reading and typing out e-mails or text messages.

"Especially now because you need to e-mail players, compliance, coaches," Caputo says. "If you have to sit down and check e-mails at a computer, it's a disaster."

Sometimes, it seems the actual games are secondary to the coaches' interaction with one another. Some coaches crack jokes; some discuss players. One asks Caputo for directions to Washington. Most coaches know the others, and regardless of name, the standard greeting remains "Coach" -- either a sign of respect or a cause for confusion in bleachers where nearly everyone goes by the same title.

By 1:45, a break in the schedule leaves coaches searching for the school cafeteria. Caputo sits a table with recently hired Massachusetts coach Derek Kellogg, a George Mason assistant from 1997 to '99. Also at his table is U-Mass. assistant Antwon Jackson, a Washington native who coached players on the D.C. Assault AAU team.

Caputo orders a grilled chicken salad, part of a personal initiative to eat healthier on the road. Because of the long hours and string of games, there are few opportunities for a full meal. Instead, coaches snack on hot dogs and candy bars intermittently throughout the day or indulge in late-night dinners. Caputo capped the previous day with a Philadelphia cheese steak at midnight.

After lunch, Caputo returns to the court for more scouting and socializing. George Mason will have five scholarships to fill next season, and it is especially in need of wing players. One Washington area player is on the court that Caputo is watching -- DeMatha guard Jerian Grant from the Class of 2010.

Grant says Virginia Tech and George Mason are recruiting him the hardest. Sitting beside Caputo during the game was Virginia Tech assistant James Johnson, who also used to work at GMU.

At 4:20 p.m., Caputo exits the gym and heads to his rental car. He needs to make it to the College of New Jersey for a 6 p.m. game. He powers his GPS navigation device and plugs in the address. Itinerant coaches travel city to city, camp to camp, and often the lone constant is a robotic voice instructing the driver to turn left.

Sometimes, the traveling becomes so repetitive that coaches cannot identify their rental cars in a parking lot scattered with white sedans. As the final games finish, Caputo says, he can sometimes hear panic buttons sounding. His car today is a blue 2008 blue Dodge Nitro, which makes it easy to spot.

Caputo reaches the College of New Jersey in Ewing, site of the Eastern Invitational, by 5:33. The tournament features 64 high school teams from the Northeast playing on indoor and outdoor tennis courts. Bleachers are scarce, so many coaches stand against the walls. At 6, Caputo watches a game between Bishop McNamara and a Pennsylvania prep school. The coaches watching work for a range of schools, from major conferences to smaller Division I schools to Division III schools.

After a dinner of chicken parmesan with Longwood University assistants Tim Fudd and Bill Reinson at an Italian restaurant in Pennington, N.J., Caputo returns to the gym, where teams from Gonzaga and Bishop McNamara await games. The star of the evening is Bishop McNamara's Rashad Whack, who says after the game he's been offered scholarships by George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth, Richmond and James Madison. His 27-point performance helps validate those offers.

Caputo makes sure he's one of the final coaches in the gym. Though he cannot talk to players and they cannot talk to him, he wants them to see him staying and watching their games as everyone else clears.

He doesn't return to his car until 11:25 and arrives at his hotel at 12:09 a.m. In one day, he has spent nearly 16 hours watching more than 100 players in parts of nine games. This is typical, and not only for Caputo.

"Recruiting is really every day," he says. "If you don't recruit 24-7, 365 days a year, then it just doesn't really work. It never really stops. It's like breathing."