Retired Quincy teacher remembers new Duke basketball coach as teenager

QUINCY — When the discussion begins about the greatest team sports coach in the history of American sport, Mike Krzyzewski is on the short list of candidates. 

Jon Scheyer, 33, is tasked with replacing Krzyzewski, the winningest college basketball coach in the history of the game. He was introduced Thursday as the next coach at Duke, starting with the 2022-23 season.

Al Knepler taught and coached boys soccer at Quincy Notre Dame from 1976 to 1986 before he went on to coach and teach for 23 years at Glenbrook North High School in Carol Stream. He met Scheyer for the first time nearly 20 years ago as a freshman at Glenbrook North.

“I remember him being a gym rat,” said Knepler, now retired from teaching and living in Quincy. “Whenever he could get a ball in his hands, he would be in the gym. There were many times he’d be in the gym with his dad.”

Scheyer had an unforgettable prep career. He is one of the top scorers in Illinois high school basketball history, winning a state championship at Glenbrook North as a junior in 2005 and earning Illinois Mr. Basketball honors in 2006. A McDonald’s All American, Scheyer chose Duke over Illinois, Arizona and Wisconsin.

Scheyer averaging 14.4 points per game and led the Blue Devils to a national championship in 2010. He joined the Duke bench eight years ago. He was promoted to associate head coach in 2018. 

Knepler, however, remembers Scheyer more as a student. Fifty seniors were selected each year at Glenbrook North to be part of a peer group that worked with Knepler.

“We would have the peer group three days a week, and two days a week, they would help freshmen adapt to high school,” he said. “Jon was great with kids. He was a great role model. As good of a basketball player as he was, you would never know that he was an athlete. He was down to earth.”

Knepler said NCAA Division I coaches from all around the country came to the Chicago area to recruit Scheyer, but he never forgot Krzyzewski’s visit.

“Here comes Coach K, walking down the hallway,” Knepler said. “I was walking towards him, so I just introduced myself. He shook my hand and was very pleasant. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, is that Coach K?’

“And now this former student of mine is replacing Coach K.”

For all of the success Knepler had as a coach, he never succeeded in convincing Scheyer to play soccer.

“He had a basketball in his hand all year long,” he said. “You weren’t ever going to get him out of the gym to play soccer in the fall.”