Unless circumstances change significantly during the next 12 months, Richard Chinapoo's second season as head coach of the Professional Arena Soccer League's Harrisburg Heat will be his last behind the indoor club's bench.
Chinapoo also will be leaving his position as the Capital Area Soccer Association's technical director in August 2014, a job he has had since 1997.
The reason?
Chinapoo will be moving to south Florida late next summer to join his wife, Nadine, and daughter, Nia, who are relocating there shortly. Nadine Chinapoo has family members who reside in the Miami area where they plan to live.
"Ultimately, I knew that at some point warmer weather would be a part of my life," said Chinapoo, a Trinidad & Tobago native who during his playing days captained his country's national team. "It was a well-thought out process.
"While they'll be down there and I'll be here, the idea was to make sure that the time I've spent here and the transition over is smooth for whomever is taking over at CASA and with the Heat — and I'll have some input with that choice.
"Not to groom them, but to be able to share some information."
The move also will put the Chinapoo family two hours closer to Trinidad by plane — flights from Miami to the southern islands of the West Indies take about three hours — than it would take to get there from suburban Harrisburg.
"There's generally a feeling of being closer to home," Chinapoo admitted.
In his first season coaching the revived Heat franchise, Chinapoo piloted the expansion club to a 4-9 (assistant coach Gino DiFlorio guided the Heat to a 2-1 mark when Chinapoo was away) and a third-place finish in the PASL's Eastern Division.
Chinapoo even played the final shift of the season at defender, logging some three minutes in the Heat's 8-3 victory over the Ohio Vortex.
"It's a work in progress," Chinapoo said of the second-year PASL club. "We have a year under our belts, we learned a lot both on the field and off, and now we're in position to prepare ourselves better and we're working on that.
"We want to put a good product on the field and provide a fantastic atmosphere for our home games and hopefully some games in the playoffs."
In his previous four-year tenure with a Heat franchise that called the National Professional Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League, Chinapoo-coached teams fashioned a 71-97 record and made two playoff appearances.
Chinapoo's best season came in 2000-2001, when he guided the Heat to a 24-16 regular-season mark and the American Conference crown. Several weeks later, he was tagged the NPSL's coach of the year.
Chinapoo played eight seasons at defender for the Heat — which in 2001 inducted him into its hall of fame — scoring 354 points (130 goals, 101 assists) and blocking 337 shots. He also was a five-time NPSL all-star.
Prior to arriving in Harrisburg, Chinapoo spent two seasons with the North American Soccer League's New York Cosmos, playing alongside global greats such as Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer. Chinapoo also spent nine seasons in the original MISL, six with the Baltimore Blast and three with the Dallas Sidekicks.
A four-time All-American at Long Island University — he was inducted into the Brooklyn, N.Y., school's hall of fame in 2001 — Chinapoo was one of 11 former players honored in 2008 as part of the NCAA's 50th anniversary team.
Chinapoo was still playing for the Heat when he moved into a position as CASA's technical director, a coaching and administrative post in which he's played a huge role in the on-field development for a suburban Harrisburg club that now has more than 2,000 youngsters playing at various levels.
While conducting a national search for Chinapoo's replacement, CASA appointed former Bishop McDevitt girls' soccer coach Austin Siodlowski and Franklin & Marshall head women's soccer coach Bill Esterly as assistant technical directors.
"It's grown over the years," acknowledged Chinapoo, who has spent the past 20-plus years working and/or living in the Harrisburg area. "Growth, consistency, progress, it's an opportunity for young players and young coaches who played here.
"[CASA] provides a place for kids to play the game locally, not only recreationally but also up to a high level."
As for what the 56-year-old Chinapoo plans to do vocationally when he finally relocates to south Florida, that's something he hopes to work out during the next 12 months or so while wrapping up his duties with the Heat and CASA.
"I have no idea what I'm going to be doing down there, but I've given myself enough time to figure that out," admitted Chinapoo, who played several times in Florida against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies during his two-season run with the powerful Cosmos.
NOTES — Chinapoo is planning to hold the first of two open tryout camps on Sept. 15 at Sports City Harrisburg. The second, meanwhile, is set for Oct. 6. ... He's hoping to open the Heat's second training camp on Oct. 21.