Passion for game drives coach to WNBA

April 19, 2005

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Frontiersman sports editor

Last spring Fred Chmiel spent most of his time on the recruiting trail, searching for the next prospect to sign with Lassen Community College.

This spring, Chmiel helping decide which college player would look best in a Charlotte Sting uniform.

A long road and a large leap has led Chmiel from the courts of the Mat-Su Valley to the arenas of the Women's National Basketball Association.

After 12 years of coaching at the junior college level, Chmiel has reached the basketball Mecca - the professional level. Chmiel, a 1989 graduate of Palmer High School, was recently named to the Sting coaching staff.

After finishing up his sixth season as the head men's basketball coach at Lassen, a Northern California community college, Chmiel began to explore future options. Without knowing where the road of a coach may lead him, Chmiel spoke with colleagues and sought out job openings. Gary Kloppenburg, formerly the head men's coach and head women's basketball coach at Lassen, told Chmiel there was an opening in the WNBA and got him an interview.

"It was a great opportunity. A make or break chance," Chmiel said after taking a break from a WNBA pre-draft meeting. "I had to take a shot at it."

The Sting flew Chmiel to Minnesota to watch a University of Minnesota and Louisiana State NCAA Division I tournament women's basketball game. At that time, the Sting were scouting Minnesota standout Janele McCarville, a player Charlotte would later take with the first overall pick in the WNBA draft. Chmiel met with Sting head coach and general manager Trudi Lacey and the pair of coaches watched the game and spoke about the opportunity over dinner.

Chmiel thought the interview went well, but three weeks went by without an answer. Just as Chmiel thought the opportunity was dead, Lacey called and offered him the job.

The guidance of a former colleague led him to the opportunity, but his history as a defense-minded coach allowed him to walk through the door, Chmiel said.

Chmiel is a preacher of the SOS pressure defensive system, a defense fueled by high intensity and judged as a valued commodity in the basketball community.

Those who knew him at Palmer High are not surprised intensity and defense are the vehicles Chmiel has ridden to the professional level.

"He was a die-hard, run through the wall kid," former PHS activities director Michael Janecek said.

Janecek said he always liked to compare the 5-foot-9 Chmiel to former National Basketball Association player Mugsy Bogues.

"He'd try to dunk. (Freddy) didn't know he was 5-9, that's the kind of player he was," Janecek said.

That passion and intensity, Chmiel brought to the basketball court, even as a prep player, and that drive is what has allowed him to stay in basketball and succeed in coaching, said Paul Reid, a former high school teammate of Chmiel.

"There was a definite serious passion for the game. That was true for both of us," Reid said. "We didn't foresee coaching, even back then. It just kind of happened. In hindsight, basketball is such a big part of what we love."

A love for basketball, and his competitiveness, have kept Chmiel pursuing his place in the game.

"I love the game, but at 5-9 you really kind of lose your path," Chmiel said. "I want to stay in the game. I'm really competitive -my dad won't even play me in checkers."

Chmiel participated in several sports during his days at Palmer, but ultimately chose to stay on the basketball path.

"I had good success playing all sports as a kid. I was better in football and baseball, but just fell in love with the sport of basketball," Chmiel said.

Chmiel said the great thing about basketball is the pace of the game.

"If you hit a bad shot in golf you have to walk 250 yards to get your ball. In basketball if you give up, you can go and get it back," Chmiel said.

After high school, Chmiel continued on the court playing at Feather River Community College, in Northern California, for two seasons, before transferring to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee during his time at Feather River set him back and ultimately Chmiel was never able to recover. Chmiel went through two surgeries and later in life he ruptured his Achilles tendon during a men's league basketball game.

The injuries may have kept Chmiel off the court, but not off the sidelines. And with the move to the bench, Chmiel brought the energy.

"If you don't have energy, how do you expect your players to have energy?" Chmiel said.