PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Swampscott’s Jaymie Caponigro, dribbling through the Salem defense in the Big Blue’s win over the Witches last week, played just three days after her grandfather, Eugene Caponigro, passed away, just one day before his wake, and of the night of his funeral.
By STEVE KRAUSE
Losing a family member is never easy. And losing one the week before Christmas is even tougher.
Most of the time, when a loved-one dies, all activity ceases. Families band together, make funeral arrangements, and just spend a few days reflecting on the life of the person who has just died.
But Jaymie Caponigro of Swampscott felt it was better if she remembered her grandfather some other way.
Eugene Caponigro died last Saturday at the age of 90. His granddaughter, Jaymie, plays on the girls basketball team in Swampscott, and has been among the team’s most important players since she was a freshman.
Nobody would have said too much if she’d not been able to play her regularly-scheduled games last Tuesday and Thursday, against Salem and Gloucester respectively. Most people would have understood.
But part of what makes athletes good at what they do is an uncommon focus that can cut through personal circumstances and concentrate on the task at hand.
Back in 2003, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre’s father died on the eve of a Monday Night football game. Favre’s Packers were to play the Oakland Raiders, and up to five minutes before the game started, Favre wasn’t sure he could play.
But he did. And before the first half ended, he had thrown for 311 yards and tossed four touchdown passes. It is said that it was the single best game of his professional career.
“I knew,” said Favre afterward, “that my dad would have wanted me to play.”
This is how Jaymie Caponigro felt too. She’d grown up in an athletic family. Her father, Joe Caponigro, is one of the premiere baseball coaches in this area. He’s been coaching at Lynn English since 2004, and is one of the pioneers of the North Shore Baseball League. Joe Caponigro used to have a saying that he’d impart to his daughter when he coached her as a child.
“Earn your shower,” he’d say to her.
Jaymie earned hers by playing against Salem Tuesday, one day before her grandfather was to be waked. And like Favre, Caponigro made sure she earned that shower.
She scored 19 points in a one-sided win over the Witches, and her coach, Katelyn Leonard, complimented her after the game, saying she’d been in “attack mode” the whole game.
But unlike Favre, there was never any doubt but that Caponigro would play.
“I was always planning on playing,” she said. “When you step on the court, you leave everything else behind, and you’re in a different world. You rely on your teammates for support, and they support you.
“It happened to work out where I was able to make the game, and the services didn’t conflict,” she said. “But I also definitely think my Papa would have wanted me playing.”
It wasn’t simply Tuesday either. The funeral was Thursday, and when it was over, the Caponigros went to Gloucester, where the Big Blue scored a 53-42 win over the Fishermen. Caponigro had a double-double, scoring 11 points and pulling 10 rebounds.
Caponigro said playing was the best tribute she could give her grandfather.
“He lived a very long life, and he accomplished a lot of things,” she said. “I know that I wanted to make him proud of me on the court, and in everything that I did.
“I just kept thinking of him wanting me to do well,” she said. “I wanted to do well for him. Overall, I just wanted to play well and make him proud.”
By the time Caponigro got to Swampscott High, her grandfather could no longer attend her games. However, he saw her play plenty of times, both soccer and basketball, when she was younger.
“He was definitely a role model for me personally,” she said. “He told me to always go 100 percent, and to be committed, and to work hard. He told me to always be the hardest-working person on the court. I just lived by that.”
Sports have always been an integral part of her life. Not only is the Caponigro family heavily involved, but her mother’s side of the family is too. Her uncle is Jim Quinlan, who is the head hockey coach at Bishop Fenwick, and who coached Saugus to back-to-back state championships during his tenure.
She has already committed to Southern New Hampshire University for soccer, and because of that will eschew basketball she gets to college.
“It’s a Division 2 program, and I think it would be hard to to back-to-back with both sports,” she said.
This isn’t to say she’s incapable of it. She played soccer and basketball back-to-back for four years at Swampscott, “plus I play club (soccer) all year around. Then, there’s school. I have to keep up with honors classes and it can be a challenge to balance it all. It’s important to work on time management.”
Speaking of time, it’s flown by, she said.
“I’m a senior, and I still feel like a freshman,” she said. “It’s really gone by fast.
“For me, it’s sad that this chapter in my life is going to end,” she said, “but I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my life in collegiate sports, and to see how I’ll do.
“But,” she said, “I’ll always remember high school sports.”