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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Paul Chappelle Impacting The Lives Of Seattle’s Youth On The Track

Miller Community Center’s head Track coach Paul Chappelle

By Aaron Allen
Seattle Medium

The Junior Olympics on a national level begins this week and as usual the Pacific Northwest will be sending its best to represent.

A familiar face returning to the Junior Olympics’ national championship meet is Paul Chappelle, one of Seattle’s longest tenured youth track coaches.

For 40 years, Chappelle has been coaching, teaching and mentoring Seattle’s youth through track and field at Miller Community Center as well as stints as an athletic director and coach for both Catholic and public schools in the Seattle area.

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A native of Seattle, Chappelle graduated from O’Dea High School in 1968, where he was a two-sport standout in football and track and field.

Chappelle describes himself as a “track teacher” rather than a track coach, and says that it is important to teach kids the basics and help them improve.

“I always associated my style of coaching as teaching, I am a track teacher, we are teaching how to be good in track,” explains Chappelle. “This is track school so let’s learn.”

In today’s world finding Black mentors for our young people is hard pressed, let alone discovering one who has put in so many years in looking out for the best interest of our community’s children.

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Chappelle’s son, Cameron, shared how important it is to his father to give back to his community. Chappelle does not get paid for his efforts. For forty years Chappelle has given his time and knowledge in the hopes that it will impact the lives of children in positive and productive ways.

Cameron Chappelle, a track and field coach himself, who works alongside his father expounds on the importance of mentorship and leadership instilled in him by his father.

“My dad taught me the importance of giving back to your community and not just your community but more importantly giving back to the under-represented youth out in the Seattle area,” says Cameron.

“It’s really important for our youth to be able see leaders and figures who look like them, grew up like them and that they can relate to and my dad is someone who embodies that,” added Cameron.

Chappelle began his career running track at Shoreline Community College.

Chappelle, who wanted to become a teacher, later transferred to the University of Puget Sound (UPS) after learning that they had an excellent physical education program.

After convincing his coach at Shoreline to write a letter on his behalf so he could transfer schools, Chappelle received a scholarship in both football and track and field from UPS.

In the spring of 1973, Chappelle graduated from UPS with a degree in Physical Education and a minor in Health and set out to begin his professional work career.

In September of 1973, he began his dream of teaching at Immaculate Middle School in Seattle teaching sixth, seventh and eighth grade and began coaching Immaculate’s basketball and track teams, a few years later, Immaculate was closed and Chappelle found a new home at St. Mary’s where he taught math and PE. In 1984, Chappelle landed a teaching position at Leschi Elementary where he remained for thirty years until he retired in 2013.

As it relates to coaching, Chappelle became the head coach of Miller Community Center’s track and field team in 1975 and since then has mentored generations of young people. To this day Chappelle is amazed when a young person comes to practice and he recognizes that he not only coached the young athlete’s parents but in some cases their grandparents as well.

It is not easy being responsible for hundreds of children at a time. It takes more strength than you can imagine. But Chappelle’s love of the challenge and love for the children makes the work look effortless.

Every coach possesses a philosophy in which they try to instill values of success in their athletes and coach Chappelle is no different. He explains his philosophy in simple terms.

“I always tell my athletes to aim high,” says Chappelle. “Because the higher you aim the farther you can go and we expect a lot out of you, because we think you can do a lot and we want you to expect a lot out yourself.”

This year, under the guidance of Chappelle, the Miller Track Team will once again send a group of athletes to compete in the national championships. Two of Miller’s recent success stories, Camille and Leona Clark, are expected to have a strong showing. According to their father and mother, Albert and Jessica Clark, the sisters, both of whom are city and regional champions in their respective divisions, have grown tremendously due to their relationship with Chappelle.

“Mr. Chappelle has been unwavering in his commitment to kids and the central district community for decades,” says Clark. “His passion for getting the best out of kids from the ages of five to teenagers is apparent the moment you see his interaction and instruction. He is a jewel to the community and we are happy to have had the opportunity to experience his coaching of our kids.”

Today, because of his love of children and teaching you can find Chappelle still teaching track and field and as a substitute for the Seattle Public Schools.

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