Feature Story: Seniors Leave Lasting Legacy on Program
by Tom Davis
The Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball program will honor its four student-athletes, whose eligibility expires following this season, on Sunday at its Horizon League game against Wright State at the Gates Sports Center at 2 p.m.
The Mastodons will lose much more than just players when Jarred Godfrey, Ra Kpedi, Bobby Planutis, and Damian Chong Qui depart the program sometime next month. The basketball program, the university, and the city of Fort Wayne will lose four incredible people, whose journeys each randomly intertwined here over the past two years.
“Over the years,” Kpedi said of his teammates, “we have been able to build relationships, and last year, we were able to win a regular-season championship, that is something that we definitely have to share for the rest of our lives.”
The 76 (and counting) victories, four conference tournament wins, one postseason bid into the College Basketball Invitational, and that 2022 Horizon League regular season championship, are achievements to be cherished, but the stories behind how four young men – from varying locations across America – journeyed to Purdue Fort Wayne and have become a chapter in each other’s life stories, is much more meaningful than outscoring the opposition on a given day (though, each player isn’t quick to diminish that desire).
“With us four,” Chong Qui explained, “we are older guys, who want to do the same thing, which is win, so it hasn’t been hard to get on the same page.
“You have that maturity when you show up to work.”
The four Mastodons have “shown up to work,” on AND off the basketball court, and that is evident in each of their stories, all of which are filled with accomplishments.
Ra Kpedi, Indianapolis, Indiana
There is perhaps no student-athlete in college basketball who has taken advantage of his opportunities, both athletically and academically, more so than Kpedi, though Planutis has a legitimate argument to make with that designation.
Kpedi, began his career at the University of Vermont, before transferring to Purdue Fort Wayne for the 2019-20 season.
The 6-foot-9 post player spent that season as a redshirt and has competed for the Mastodons over the past three seasons. During his time at Purdue Fort Wayne, Kpedi has been a two-time NABC Honors Court selection and has evolved into one of the top offensive rebounders in the nation this year (eighth in the nation, 3.74 per game).
“I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to come back to Indiana and play for Purdue Fort Wayne,” Kpedi said. “I wanted a community that would embrace me, not just as a basketball player, but as a human being, as a person, and Fort Wayne has done that for me over my time here.”
That human aspect is an overriding theme for each of the four Mastodons, and Kpedi found Fort Wayne to be a place where he could grow professionally, as much as he did athletically.
The Lawrence North High School graduate earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics in December 2020, and later earned a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in business finance and business analytics.
“With the extra year of eligibility given to players because of the pandemic,” Kpedi said, “that gave me the opportunity to advance my education.”
The pandemic also allowed Kpedi to have the time to prepare for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam, which he spent 300 hours studying for as an independent study, which is a monumental task for anyone, of any age, let alone a college student-athlete, who is swamped with a full class load and training.
“As far as ‘Did I plan this,’” Kpedi pondered, “I definitely did not. It just kind of happened. I am very blessed and grateful for the opportunity that I was given.”
Jarred Godfrey, Atlanta, Georgia
If the city of Fort Wayne ever needed a director of marketing, Godfrey would be a great person to start with.
The 6-foot-5 guard has developed into one of the best scorers in college basketball, and that was shown last off-season when numerous Power 5 college basketball programs begged Godfrey to finish his career someplace other than Purdue Fort Wayne.
“The decision to stay wasn’t too hard,” Godfrey said. “I have been able to build up somewhat of a brand here. I have been able to network throughout the course of the years.
“I have met some great people here and it has become my second home. I didn’t want to give that up. I love how (Purdue Fort Wayne) plays. I love this city and I still have unfinished business.”
That last comment is in reference to the Mastodons not winning the Horizon League Tournament and advancing to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
Godfrey said he, along with Kpedi, Chong Qui, and Planutis, all have their sights on “making their mark” on the Mastodon program by achieving that goal for the first time in program history.
“I feel like it is my part to try and do that for this city,” Godfrey said.
That level of loyalty is something that Purdue Fort Wayne has been able to develop, and Godfrey isn’t the only example of it.
Former Purdue Fort Wayne greats John Konchar and Max Landis could have finished their careers anywhere in the country but elected to stay with the Mastodons until the very end.
“One of my core values that I stand on is loyalty,” Godfrey said. “Purdue Fort Wayne has been loyal to me in helping me grow, and learning everything that I can here, so it is only right that I return that loyalty.”
Godfrey recently passed Konchar, who now plays for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, as the Mastodons’ all-time leading scorer, and is among the top Purdue Fort Wayne players, historically, in a multitude of categories.
He unselfishly accepted a new role of playing off the ball when Chong Qui arrived last season, and in fact, the two have become best friends.
“Jarred embraced Damian to make us better,” ninth-year Purdue Fort Wayne coach Jon Coffman explained. “Damian’s intensity helped raised the level of Jarred to a First Team All-Horizon League player.”
In one statistical realm, Godfrey stands alone, as he is the only active player in NCAA Division I men's basketball with 2,000 points, 600 rebounds, 400 assists, 200 made 3-pointers, and 200 steals. However, if you ask Godfrey, who holds one Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology, and will earn a second degree this May, about his basketball accomplishments, he has little interest in discussing anything but what the program can achieve.
“It is something that I will grow an appreciation for down the road,” Godfrey said of the statistics, “but right now, I am focused on winning and playing our best basketball coming down the stretch.”
Godfrey’s love of Fort Wayne is shared by his Australian Shepherd, Kodak.
When the Mastodons must travel, Godfrey said the community of Fort Wayne has been more than welcoming in lending a helping hand and caring for Kodak while his beloved owner is on the road.
“Fort Wayne is a very loving community,” Godfrey said. “I have several people, who have reached out and offered to watch Kodak anytime that I have to go out of town.”
Bobby Planutis, Hazelton, Pennsylvania
If Kpedi is the poster guy for “Mr. Student-Athlete,” then Planutis is going to challenge him in the next election.
Planutis has had a circuitous journey to Fort Wayne, but at each step, he has taken full advantage of his athletic and academic opportunities.
The 6-foot-8 shooter began his post-high school career at a prep school in Maine, before landing at NCAA Division I Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland. He only spent one season “at The Mount,” but it played a critical role in his eventual landing with the Mastodons.
While at Mount St. Mary’s, he met the Mountaineers’ Director of Basketball Operations, Mike Wolf, who is now in his fourth season as an assistant with Purdue Fort Wayne, and eventually was a key reason Planutis came to Fort Wayne.
“I had played for so many coaches,” Planutis said, “I was trying to get with a coach and have a good relationship and an offensive system that I saw myself excelling in.
“It was kind of easy (to come to Fort Wayne) because Mike was on the staff.”
The coaching staff at Mount St. Mary’s changed after Plauntis’ one season there, so he spent two seasons at St. Bonaventure, before coming to the Mastodons for the 2020-21 season.
Through all those junctures, Planutis has thrived on the court AND off it.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management, and did a pair of emphases within the Organizational Leadership and Supervision Master’s program, with “one in Human Resources and one in Leadership,” according to Planutis.
“Bobby is ‘Mr. Gym Rat,’ Coffman said. “He lives in the gym.”
Or wherever he can find a place to hoop.
During the Mastodons’ off-season trip to Portugal, Planutis had a Purdue Fort Wayne graduate assistant coach stand on the beach and make a hoop circle with his hands on the morning of a game so he could work on his form shooting.
“Bobby has left a lasting mark on our program with discipline, consistency and work ethic,” Coffman said.
Planutis has started every one of his games in Fort Wayne over the past three seasons and aspires to become a coach.
He joined the program, which already had Godfrey and Kpedi, and he found the transition to be seamless from a relationship standpoint, as well as geographically.
“We spend a lot of time together,” Planutis said. “You are almost forced to have relationships with guys and these guys are good dudes.”
Planutis embraced the up-tempo style of play that Coffman has implemented, and even found some of the unique team bonding experiences (dining etiquette, ballroom dancing, military training, etc…) that Coffman is infamous for to be… well, interesting.
“The previous programs that I played for,” Planutis said, “we never did stuff like that. So, it is definitely different (here), like going to an amusement park or this one time where we went to this paintball place and then had to stay in the woods.”
Planutis found some of those activities fun and learned from them, but he wasn’t ready to commit to saying in the future that he would have his own team practice ballroom dancing.
“I was definitely not the best at (ballroom dancing),” Planutis said, “but it was all right. I don’t know if I am going to implement ballroom dancing.”
Planutis lived in five states (Pennsylvania, Maine, Maryland, New York, and Indiana) over a six-year period, and he developed an affinity for Fort Wayne quickly.
“Fort Wayne is really good,” Planutis said. “The two (colleges) that I was at before, were little towns, or little cities, I guess. In Coach Coffman’s recruiting video, he pointed out that there are 300 restaurants within 10 miles (of the campus).
“I love Fort Wayne.”
Damian Chong Qui, Baltimore, Maryland
Like Kpedi and Planutis, Chong Qui began his career elsewhere (Mount St. Mary’s), and like Planutis, Wolf played an important role – eventually – in his landing in Fort Wayne.
“I have a lot of history with Mike,” Chong Qui said affectionately of the coach. “He helped me transition through my first year of college.”
Chong Qui spent three years with the Mountaineers and started 79 games during his time with that program, including helping Mount St. Mary’s earn an NCAA Tournament berth. When he decided to transfer, the former walk-on, who had never really immersed himself in the recruiting process, needed guidance, so he turned to Wolf.
“I had never been recruited coming out of high school,” Chong Qui said. “It’s business and Mike helped me with the (recruiting process).
“I would call Mike and tell him which schools were recruiting me, and he would give me advice.”
The quick assumption would be that Wolf was steering Chong Qui to the Mastodons with a fervor, however, never assume things in life.
Chong Qui, who will graduate with a degree in general studies with an emphasis in business and sport management, this spring, was being pursued by a number of programs, but until (then Horizon League member) UIC began to show interest, Wolf never mentioned to Chong Qui about the possibility of coming to Fort Wayne.
“I told Mike (about UIC),” Chong Qui recalled, “and he said, ‘They’re in our conference.’ He told me that he hadn’t recruited me because I was looking to go somewhere else at a higher level, but if I was considering going to a school at (Purdue Fort Wayne’s) level, then ‘I’m not going to coach against you.’”
The Mastodons were in search of a point guard and the rest is history, as Chong Qui has started every game over the past two seasons and Planutis said all four of the departing players “blend really well together.”
“We all do different things,” Planutis said. “And we all play off each other.”
At 5-foot-8, Chong Qui starts the defensive emphasis for Purdue Fort Wayne with his ball pressure. His ability lifted the Mastodons from the bottom of the Horizon League defensively to the top of the league.
“Damian’s toughness raised the level of our play as an organization,” Coffman said. “He is always the first to accept ownership if we didn’t perform as we needed.
“His grit and resolve have left a mark on our program.”
There was no better example of that than the Mastodons’ epic three-overtime home win over Cleveland State on Feb. 14, 2022, which eventually led to the program earning a share of the regular-season championship with the Vikings.
With the score tied, and six seconds remaining on the clock, Coffman made an “unforgivable coaching error” and called a timeout, when his team didn’t have one. In the ensuing huddle, to a man, the Mastodons cited the program’s mantra of “next play” to their coach.
When the huddle broke, none other than Chong Qui tapped Coffman on the head and said “I’ll fix this.”
And he did.
Following three Viking free throws in the final seconds, Chong Qui buried a 3-pointer with no time remaining to force the first overtime.
“Not once did any of those guys show bad body language, doubt or point fingers,” Coffman said, who now refers to that night as his “most proud moment in coaching.” “They ‘owned’ my error as being part of a team—an elite team which found a way to then win that game.”
Four athletes. Four students. Four young men. Each from a different region of the country, with different backgrounds, brought together to grow, learn, and achieve together.
“We have great relationships,” Kpedi said. “Obviously, we have won a bunch of games together and endured a lot of tough matches.
“Honestly, we’ve laughed together and had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears through this time that we have had as Mastodons. We have tried to make our mark on this program.”