When Jeff Capel called his VCU players together for the 2003-04 season, he didn’t pay much attention to the walk-ons. But if Capel didn’t notice walk-on Jesse Pellot-Rosa at the time, he surely got to know him later.
Ever perceptive, Pellot-Rosa noticed Capel not noticing.
“He didn’t play me in the exhibition games because he had all the scholarship guys. I’m the last guy on the bench,” Pellot-Rosa said Tuesday when contacted by TribLive. “I’m saying to myself, ‘What’s going on? I’m hot. I’m hot, hot.’ ”
So Pellot-Rosa decided to make himself noticeable.
“I didn’t even have the walk-on frame of mind,” he said. “I just came in as I’m one of the guys. I played against some of the guys on the team, and I kicked their butt in high school. I knew these guys, and they knew me.
“Every day in (VCU) practice, I’m kicking their butt. I figured out, what does the team need? He has scorers, but a lot of guys weren’t playing defense. I’m going to lock down everybody in practice. I’m going to dive on the floor. I’m going to take charges. I’m going to rebound. I’m going to fight like heck. I had to do what everybody else wasn’t doing, and that’s what I did. I was like a pit bull.”
And that’s why, to this day, Capel tells the story of Jesse Pellot-Rosa to every team he coaches. Capel repeated it to reporters Monday night after Pitt’s 83-64 victory against Gardner-Webb. Capel wasn’t pleased that a 27-point lead with three minutes to play turned into a 19-point victory with reserves in the game.
When he was asked if he would like to get his bench players a greater opportunity, he said, “I don’t give playing time out. Guys earn playing time. There is no such thing as BS minutes. If you think that, you’re BS. You’re full of it. Guys have to understand every second you get out there is an opportunity.”
Then, he launched into Pellot-Rosa’s story.
“I’ve had guys who have played for me in a situation like this, played some minutes and got in and just played their butts off,” said Capel, who coached VCU from 2002-06. “Then, the same thing the next game. The same thing the next game. Then, (Pellot-Rosa) played a little bit earlier (in the game).
“We go to La Salle, and he starts. He was a walk-on, and he hits the game-winning shot. He started for the rest of the year, all because of how he approached every minute, every second that he was in there. In shoot-around, all of those things. It’s one of the most incredible stories of a kid that I have ever coached. One of the coolest kids and best kids I’ve ever coached.”
Pellot-Rosa was a starter for the rest of 2003-04 and made the winning free throw in the Coastal Athletic Association championship game against George Mason, sending VCU to the NCAA Tournament. Every year, he increased his scoring average, finishing at 13.3 points per game in 2006-07. That was the year VCU upset Duke in the NCAA Tournament before Pellot-Rosa scored 20 points in the next round, an overtime loss to Pitt.
“That was the best game of my career. I’ll never forget that game,” Pellot-Rosa said, recalling how VCU trailed 41-26 at halftime. Pellot-Rosa’s basket gave VCU a lead with 52 seconds left in regulation before Pitt’s Sam Young scored to force overtime.
After Pellot-Rosa’s freshman year, Capel’s assistants kept insisting the team needed improvement at his position.
“I would tell them no one would ever beat him out because they can’t physically and mentally do it every day,” Capel said. “That’s the level of toughness that you have to have. You have to show up every day with the right attitude and you have to earn it.”
Just like Pellot-Rosa used to do.
He never played in the NBA, but he went to the New York Jets as a wide receiver — the first time he played football since high school — and was one of the final cuts in 2007 training camp. Not before he caught a touchdown pass against Darrelle Revis in practice.
Pellot-Rosa turned to international basketball, where he had an 11-year career that took him to Iceland, Denmark, Israel, Uruguay, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
He was recruited by several schools for basketball and football, including Maryland, N.C. State, Virginia and Virginia Tech, before he settled on Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy. He even attended former Pitt football coach Walt Harris’ camp with Larry Fitzgerald.
Pellot-Rosa is a basketball coach now, an assistant at New Kent (Va.) High School, with his own AAU team, J&R Basketball. Two years ago, he brought his players to a Pitt camp and visited with Capel.
“I’m always indebted to him,” Pellot-Rosa said. “I came from the rough parts of the south side of Richmond (Va.). Without him giving me the opportunity, ain’t no telling where I would be at.”