Rec Sports
Remembering Braintree’s David Chappron, who built powerhouse AAU team
Long before Name, Image and Likeness rules began stuffing money into college athletes’ pockets, David Chappron had a slightly more modest incentive plan for his own, slightly younger, players. “When you’re little, you think the most important thing is scoring the most amount of points,” Merry MacDonald recalled with a laugh of her days of […]
Long before Name, Image and Likeness rules began stuffing money into college athletes’ pockets, David Chappron had a slightly more modest incentive plan for his own, slightly younger, players.
“When you’re little, you think the most important thing is scoring the most amount of points,” Merry MacDonald recalled with a laugh of her days of being coached by Chappron in the Bay State Magic AAU basketball program. “What he would do is give candy bars — and not just the little candy bars; big king-sized candy bars — to whoever got the most assists, steals, things like that. And you’d get extra if you took a charge.
“That taught us (valuable lessons); at 10 years old, you want candy.”
Nothing wrong with a little bribery, after all, if it got kids to buy in to Chappron’s team-first, unselfish vision of the game.
“It taught you to emphasize those (little) things that anyone on the court could do, no matter how tall you were,” MacDonald said, “as opposed to rewarding points and rebounds and stuff like that. It was more about the hustle and character things.”
Chappron, who passed away suddenly on May 2 at the age of 67, was a towering figure in youth basketball in Braintree. He coached in various town and travel leagues but found his greatest success (at least in terms of wins and losses) with the Magic, whom he led to seven straight AAU age-group state titles from 1999-2005 with a roster littered with future high school and college stars.
MacDonald was one of those. Now in her second season as athletic director at Oliver Ames High, she took what she learned from years of playing for Chappron (he stuck with the same group of AAU players as they moved up to different age groups) and won a Division 1 state championship at Braintree High in 2006 while playing with fellow Magic alumnae Brittney Chappron (David’s daughter), Stephanie Geehan and Meg Cook.
Three more former Magic players — Erin Sheehan, Brittany Engle and Shonneau Lippett (daughter of former New England Patriot Ronnie Lippett) — helped Oliver Ames win the Div. 2 girls state crown that same season. Engle went on to coach the Tigers’ program for the 2022-23 campaign after serving as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Laney Clement-Holbrook. Geehan, meanwhile, was the interim North Quincy High girls coach in 2022-23.
Big props to David Chappron for laying groundwork for those titles, and for making the coaching profession attractive to his players. He was legendary for his teaching skills, including making his young charges go through practice layups using their off hand.
“He definitely made it fun,” said daughter Brittney (Chappron) McRae, who went on to play at Bridgewater State and now lives in Hanover. “It was repetitive — we’d learn how to pass and shoot the right way — but he always made it fun. I remember one time in fourth grade it was Merry who made a lefty layup and no one else knew how to do that. The other coach said to my dad, ‘I hope she’s a lefty.’ And he said, ‘Nope.'”
David Chappron was an old-school stickler for details, too, including making sure players had their shirts tucked in on the court.
“He basically taught us all the fundamentals of basketball,” MacDonald said of the man affectionately known as ‘Chappy.’ “I don’t think he got all the recognition (he deserved) for us being so successful (in high school). All the foundations of basketball and basketball IQ came from him. When I think of basketball, I think of him.”
“Dave was a tremendous coach,” agreed Brian Harris, a former Chappron assistant coach whose daughter Abigail, of Hingham, was on those great Magic teams. “He never raised his voice, he never belittled the players. He was always encouraging. He loved teaching basketball and he really had basketball in his blood. That’s what made him happiest — being around a basketball court.”
David Chappron played the game himself, of course, at Hull High (Class of 1976) and at Mass. Maritime Academy. A Navy veteran, he was an engineer at General Electric who loved to travel (Martha’s Vineyard was his go-to spot), adored Larry Bird, and was, as Brittney recalls, “very proud of everywhere he came from.”
“We had a really special bond, especially in AAU,” Brittney said of playing for her dad. “As I got older, my mom would have to stay home with my brother, and it was me and him for some really long car rides with no GPS. I’d have to MapQuest it and we’d kind of be a team the whole way. And we were both pretty competitive, so some of the car rides home would be interesting, either way (depending on the result of the game). Those are some of my best memories with him.”
Saying goodbye to David Chappron was hard, but watching his former players reconnect with family members, including his wife Beverly and his three other children (Michelle Metro, Jill DiTocco and David Chappron Jr., all of Braintree) at the wake and funeral softened the blow.
“It was amazing,” Brittney said. “I heard from a lot of people (who knew him) but by far the most (feedback) came from people he had coached. That was really, really nice. It was very special to all of us because (coaching) meant so much to him.”
The bonds Chappron helped establish in those AAU days have stood the test of time. Merry MacDonald calls Brittney her best friend and had her and Stephanie Geehan as bridesmaids at her wedding.
“To be able to share those memories helped,” MacDonald said of the grieving process. “The Chappron family was telling us how much he loved us and was so proud of us. And then us as players getting together and some of things I’m talking to you about, we talked about (among ourselves), too. He’s probably looking down on us, saying, ‘Oh that’s so funny that they’re talking about me making them have their shirts tucked in.'”