Courtesy Thomas Pantaleo
By Allison Perrine
RUMSON – Longtime Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School boys basketball coach Chris “Shempy” Champeau’s summer basketball programs are far from your typical local sports leagues.
They are programs that promote a strong sense of community pride, belonging and team loyalty among the children who participate – no matter what their skill levels are. The games draw crowds of hundreds to Victory Park in the heart of Rumson where spectators sit under the lights overlooking the Navesink River. It’s a very encouraging, inclusive, high-energy atmosphere, and that’s exactly what Champeau envisioned when he built the program 10 years ago.
“Whether they end up being big-time high school basketball players doesn’t matter,” said Champeau. “For me, it’s not about who the stars are. They realize right off the bat that we love the bench guys just as much as the guys who start,” he said.
“My bench sits ranked in order of enthusiasm. So no one just sits on my bench.”
The programs, which are not affiliated with the school, are open for children in third through 10th grade. The most popular is the “D League” (now the DOC League) open to seventh- through 10th-graders with Rumson-Fair Haven High School varsity star players as the coaches. Teams are formed with a draft comprised of students from Fair Haven and Rumson. The teams then face off at Victory Park over the course of six to seven weeks. There, they develop “a circle of life mentality” that helps bridge the move from middle school to high school.
“By the time you get to the high school, you already have a built-in dog pack of guys that you know so it gives you some confidence. It gives you a feeling of belonging to a program,” said Champeau. “It’s a nervous time for guys to go into high school, so now they’ve got some older brothers that are already up there. And for the varsity guys, it gives them leadership.”
The program was recently renamed the DOC League in honor of the late Ed Gangemi, M.D., Champeau’s assistant coach who passed away in March due to complications from COVID-19. Gangemi was instrumental in the league and could be found sweeping the courts in his black scrubs before the games so the children had a clean court to play on.
“Ed was a simple man who loved being with his family and coaching basketball,” said Laura Gangemi, Ed’s wife. She said he found great joy in coaching with Champeau as an RFH varsity assistant coach for a few years and also loved coaching the summer D League. Ed would sponsor a team each year and especially loved coaching their two sons, Marco and Matteo, and their friends. After the games, they would “all head out for a magical dinner right in town” at a local restaurant. “It’s a special program, that D League.”
In his childhood, Ed would spend summers in Rumson. Once he and Laura started their family, they moved to town because Ed wanted his children to experience the same things he did as a child, Laura explained. Marco and Matteo continued to play in the DOC League and Laura attended the games, which began this summer with a moment of silence and a few words about Ed. According to Champeau, doing so was part of his “healing process.”
“We all know he’s watching down on us,” said Champeau. “The D League has been a platform for various things like this. When it first started, we welcomed back a Desert Storm veteran… we’ve done things for kids with brain injuries, we’ve done things for autism,” he added. “We’ve been a big platform to really help people and get everyone behind causes that mean a lot to people.”
That same mentality stands in Champeau’s other summer leagues, including the B League, also known as the BELIEVE League. Part of the inspiration behind it was Jack Velcamp, an RFH varsity basketball manager who was born with dwarfism although his twin brother wasn’t. Velcamp’s parents were told Jack would not survive. Those doctors were wrong.
“We’ve got the BELIEVE League where size doesn’t matter,” said Champeau. It is open to boys in third through sixth grade and is coached by RFH junior varsity players. Like the DOC League, it has become increasingly popular and has that same high-energy, positive atmosphere.
Champeau has received hundreds of messages from parents and guardians over the years explaining the ways in which the programs have improved their children’s confidence levels.
“When you’re that age and transitioning into being a teenager, it feels good to have guys around you that are on the same mission – that all they want for you is the best and to do well. We keep it light and we keep it inclusive but it’s also very competitive. It’s a great combination,” said Champeau. “It’s helped them come out of their shells.”
Rumson resident and former participant Ian O’Connor testified to that. Now a junior Division 1 football player at Lehigh University, O’Connor reflected on his experiences in the DOC League with The Two River Times.
“Shempy made a great experience for me and I’m very grateful. I always talk to my friends about how my high school basketball experience wasn’t like most because it was really like a family,” said O’Connor. “Coach Shemp would do everything he could to get guys on the team that would not necessarily have to be the best basketball players but would need to have the right attitude… and other very important parts of basketball that don’t necessarily involve skill. And I feel like that very much helped us in our success.”
According to Champeau, the plan is to keep the leagues going as long as possible. “As long as the kids keep enjoying it, we’re going to keep doing it. We realized how much we missed it with COVID,” he said; the league was on hiatus last summer because of the pandemic. Champeau now uses the platform to “honor a guy who was what the league was all about, which was being a part of the community, helping people.”
Aside from the basketball programs, Champeau will soon be involved as a partner at the new Fort Athletic Club opening Oct. 1 on the former Fort Monmouth. It will be open to everyone and will encompass the same enthusiasm and spirit as the summer leagues, Champeau said. For more information, visit forthathleticclub.com.
The article originally appeared in the August 26 – September 1, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
