UA Fort Smith Athletics

Brandon Chappell begins his second season as assistant coach with the Lions.

Chappell, a native of Beaumont, Texas, has had a very successful start to his tenure as Lions assistant coach. In his first season on coach Josh Newman’s staff, Chappell helped led the Lions to a 23-11 record, the regular-season Heartland Conference Championship, the Heartland Conference Tournament Championship and an appearance in the NCAA Division II National Tournament. 

Prior to joining the Lions, Chappell was a graduate assistant and recruiting coordinator for two seasons (2014-16) at NCAA Division I Northern Arizona University (NAU) in the Big Sky Conference.

As a graduate assistant, Chappell’s main duty was player development. Working with all five positions, Chappell assisted the coaching staff during drills in team practice and individual workouts and during film sessions.

In 2015, three players earned Big Sky All-Conference honors.

As recruiting coordinator, his duties consisted of overseeing recruiting mail-outs, organizing on campus recruiting visits and maintaining a proper recruiting database for the coaching staff.  

During Chappell’s 2014-15 season at NAU, NAU set the school single-season win record with 23 wins. That year, NAU advanced to the championship game of the CIT Championship against Evansville University. NAU defeated Grand Canyon University, Sacramento State, Kent State and NJIT to reach the finals.

In 2013-14, Chappell began his coaching career at Armstrong State University in Savannah, Ga. As an assistant there, he was responsible for game scouting, practice planning, recruiting, player development, team travel and video operations.

Prior to coaching, Chappell played five years professionally in Germany from 2007-2012, playing for Medi Bayreuth, TV Langen and Licher Basket Baeren teams during his time there. His best season was in 2009, when he averaged 15 points and five assists per game and shot 50 percent from the field and 41 percent from 3-point range.

Collegiately, Chappell played for his hometown NCAA Division I Lamar University Cardinals from 2003-2007. During his senior year, Chappell averaged 13 points per game and shot 43 percent from 3-point range in Southland Conference play. His best performance was against Nicholls State in 2007, when he scored 29 points and was 9-for-11 shooting from 3-point range.

Chappell finished his college playing career ranked in the school’s Top 10 in 3-point field goals made and 3-point field goal shooting percentage (41 percent). During his four seasons at Lamar, Chappell played under hall-of-famer Billy Tubbs and current Virginia Tech assistant Steve Roccaforte.

In high school, Chappell was a four-year letterman at Ozen High School in Beaumont. In 2001, his high school team won the Texas 4A State Championship, finishing with an undefeated record of 36-0 while being led by the Boston Celtics’ Kendrick Perkins. Ozen also finished the 2001 season ninth nationally by USA Today High School Basketball. During his senior year, Chappell was named All-Region, All-District and Defensive Player of the Year. His combined high school record was 109-23 in over four years.

Chappell graduated from Lamar University in 2006 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Marketing and earned his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership in 2016 from Northern Arizona University.