VMI Athletics: Cappuccitti joins women’s soccer coaching staff

New VMI women’s soccer head coach Chris Haught-Thompson named John Cappuccitti as an assistant coach for his program Tuesday afternoon.

A native of Mount Prospect, Illinois, Cappuccitti comes to the Institute after serving as an assistant under Coach Haught-Thompson for the women’s soccer team at Knox College this past season. He helped the Prairie Fire to a 13-5-3 record en route to a both a regular season and conference tournament championship. Three team members were named All-Region and five were named to the All-Conference team including the Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.

His many responsibilities included designing individual training sessions, recruiting, travel organization for road trips, opponent scouting, directing film sessions and in-game evaluation.

From 2016-18 he instructed for Coerver Coaching and helped participants focus on ball skill and tactical thinking. Since 2017 he has evaluated teams for the Chicago Rush, placing a focus on skill and talent to play at the club level. He ran summer camps for his former high school from 2015-17.

After transferring from Loyola University of Chicago following his freshman season, he played three seasons at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he was named the MWC Offensive Player of the Year in 2016 for leading the league in goals and points per game.

He was a two-time All-MWC honoree and was named to the NSCAA All-North Region third team in 2016. A team captain his junior and senior season, Cappuccitti received the Forester Commitment Award in 2018 and was named to the Lake Forest All-Sportsmanship Team. He led the Foresters to NCAA appearances in 2016 and 2018.

Before his final season he played on a USA D-III select team that played overseas in Brazil in 2017 where he scored four goals and had three assists in four games.

After his senior year Cappuccitti played professionally in Croatia on a select tour team for FC Select in 2018. He had an assist and started two games, including one against Zagreb Dinamo’s second team.

Cappuccitti earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Lake Forest College in June of 2018.