North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Getting With The Program
11/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 1, 2010
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. - Nate Irving wasn't going to let his teammates down.
It didn't matter to him, as NC State's defense lined up for its final play last Thursday night against Florida State, that his thumb was throbbing. He had left the field a few minutes earlier after a painful injury and wasn't expected to return.
But as the Seminoles marched relentlessly down the field, pushing towards the goal line and a touchdown that would have given them the lead over the Wolfpack in the nationally televised game, he remembered the leadership training he and his teammates had back in July.
He remembered the ethos that he learned from The Program's Eric Kapitulik: One more.
"I knew, being a captain and a leader, I had to suck it up and fight for my team," Irving said.
He knew, despite the pain, he could play one more series on the field. So, when Seminole quarterback Christian Ponder lined up on second and goal from the Wolfpack's 4-yard line with less than a minute remaining on the clock, Irving was mentally prepared to make something - anything - happen.
When Ponder dropped the ball after bouncing off tailback Ty Jones' leg, Irving was there to fall on it, preserving the Wolfpack's important 28-24 victory in front of a worried crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium. The win gave head coach Tom O'Brien and his team the upper hand in the ACC's Atlantic Division race, heading into this weekend's equally important game at Clemson's Death Valley (noon, ACC Television Network).
Just 24 hours before, former Marine officer Kapitulik stood in front of Irving and his teammates to remind them of the leadership training they went through back in July, when Kapitulik and his trainers from The Program hauled several 14-foot log poles, some five-ton truck tires and a handful of other difficult obstacles to challenge the Wolfpack, as a team, to work together.
The training wasn't intended to make them bigger, faster or stronger than their opponents. It was intended to make them work together under difficult circumstances. Kapitulik knows about mental toughness. He's been on top of the world, and nearly to the bottom of the sea. Quite literally.
Last August - after a lifetime of training as a lacrosse player, a Marine officer and an Ultimate Ironman competitor; after a long journey through China and Tibet; after seven weeks of the most challenging high-altitude climbing of his life - Kapitulik stood on the summit of Mt. Everest.
For all of six minutes.
Even then, Kapitulik knew his journey was only half complete. More people die coming down from the summit, than going up. The real challenge from the most difficult climb of his life was having the mental strength to descend safely.
Kapitulik knows about the depths of life, too. In 1999, he was on a Marine helicopter hovering over the Pacific Ocean, strapped to his seat with 10 of his fellow Marines, attempting to land on a ship during a Force Reconnaissance training operation. But the pilot came in too low and too fast. The left rear wheel of the chopper snagged the side of the ship, stuck in the heavy metal netting that surrounded it and wouldn't let go. The aircraft went vertical and crashed into the sea.
Everyone on board was knocked unconscious. Kapitulik was fortunate enough to come to, get out of his seat, shed his 75 pounds of equipment and get to the surface before the aircraft sunk. Six of his men, however, perished in the ocean.
Kapitulik spent the next eight years competing in the world's toughest endurance races and climbing the world's highest mountains to raise money for the college fund he set up for the six children of his dead Marines. Now, Kapitulik is the CEO of The Program, a leadership training company that has worked with NC State's football team since July, helping the Wolfpack players find the physical and mental strength they need to be successful on the football field.
Those lessons served the Wolfpack (6-2 overall, 3-1 ACC) well in the first four weeks of the season, but faded in fourth-quarter losses to Virginia Tech and East Carolina.
Kapitulik, who played college lacrosse while at the Naval Academy, came back to campus Wednesday night to reinforce the training the Wolfpack received four months ago. He reiterated the three core values of The Program: Be mentally and physically tough. Don't make excuses and don't let others make excuses for you. Work hard.
Boiled down, the philosophy Kapitulik and his team try to instill in their 130 clients - which range from the NHL's Boston Bruins to NC State's football team to fifth grade girls youth lacrosse teams - is to do one more.
"We don't make bad teams good, good teams great or great teams national champions," said Kapitulik, who spent eight years on active duty as a Marine Corps infantry and Force Recon officer. "Our goal is to make everybody with whom we work the proverbial `that much better.'
"The way we do that is to be good team leaders and good teammates and to prepare every day to fill either of those roles. Our trademark saying is `We do one more.' You, as an individual and as a team, have to figure out what `one more' is and make a commitment to do that each and every day."
He was introduced to O'Brien, another former Marine officer, through NC State director of football operations Kit Hughes, who played college lacrosse against one of Kapitulik's trainers during his four years as a letterman at Bowdoin College in Maine.
Kapitulik struck a chord with O'Brien immediately.
"I think the players appreciate him and the time he spent with them this summer," O'Brien said. "It was well worth it for us. His training was a perfect fit for where we are in the development of our program."
O'Brien presented Kapitulik with a game ball in the postgame lockerroom. Just after the coach's press conference, he chatted with several bowl representatives who were at the game and thanked Kapitulik one more time for stopping by on his way to his 15-year reunion at the Naval Academy to reinforce his earlier training. Something, obviously, hit home.
Kapitulik left Raleigh early Friday morning, elated to see such a dramatic victory. But, knowing the Wolfpack is headed to Clemson to play in its next "biggest game of the O'Brien tenure," he was hardly satisfied. His parting words?
One more, Wolfpack.
Just. One. More.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
