By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
When Berlin football coach John Capodice ran afoul of Connecticut's 50-point victory margin rule (57-0 over Farmington), he was supposed to be suspended from coaching for one game.
But the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) has a procedure in place whereby a coach, with the backing of his school, can appeal the suspension.
Capodice and the Redcoats did so and the appeal was upheld by a 3-2 vote from a panel including CIAC Assistant Executive Director Paul Hoey; CIAC football committee chair Leroy Williams of Roberto Clemente Middle School-New Haven, CIAC president Bill Barney, principal at The Morgan School-Clinton; Jigg Cecchini, retired Suffield coach and athletic director and Dave Johnson, athletic director at Bunnell-Stratford.
The appeals board had some new guidelines to help it through the process, ideas suggested by the CIAC football committee.
Hand's Steve Filippone, the ranking coach on the committee which includes coaches, athletic directors and administrators, talked about a number of issues the group confronted.
"Going in, what our goals were to expand the committee from three people to at least four, if not five. We added a coach. We wanted a retired coach or someone who had some real football background. The other thing we wanted to do was come up with a fairly formal list of criteria that the committee could use as guidelines for determining whether or not to suspend a coach," Filippone said.
The list included clock management, substitution patterns, play-calling and modifications to the kicking game.
The committee suggested if a team were leading at halftime or in the second half by 35 points or more, the coach should suggest running time to the officials and the opponent. An opponent could, of course, say no, but that would be considered a mitigating factor.
Liberal substitution, particularly at the "skill" positions was expected and so was the offensive game plan.
"Did you throw 30 times in the first half and 35 in the second half or did you go to a more modified game plan so your kids could be on the field competing but with less chance to score?" Filippone said.
The kicking aspect came in with decisions like punting or going for it on fourth-and-a-foot from the opponents' 40 or trying to kick a field goal in the fourth quarter.
The committee did formalize those four aspects of the dozen or so the coaches had in mind.
The result was the hearing panel was convinced Capodice did not try to run it up. He had a letter of support from the Farmington people. He did not throw in the second half. On the final touchdown, his team went for two because his kicker is also is starting quarterback and he did not want starters on the field.
The committee did include a warning with its decision. Members felt Capodice could have implemented steps earlier. The reason? Simple. He asked for running time when it was 42-0 rather than 35-0.
That was a simple wrist-slap which was deserved because, although he is a newcomer, Capodice is a member of the football committee and had to be well-aware of the summer work done by the coaches.
