Ocean City girls basketball team: Don’t renew coaches’ contracts

Players tell school board coaches have been ‘demeaning,’ ‘disrespectful’

OCEAN CITY — About a dozen members of the Ocean City High School girls basketball team stood before the Board of Education on Wednesday night and asked that their coaches’ contracts not be renewed for next season.

They offered complaints including being “verbally degraded, bullied, sworn at and called demeaning and disrespectful names” for the past three months by head coach Michael Cappelletti and assistant coach Tim Kelley. Cappelletti took over the team this season following longtime coach Paul Baruffi’s retirement. Cappelletti had been Baruffi’s assistant since the 2007-08 season.

Two parents spoke as well, adding to their daughters’ concerns. Cappelletti’s wife, Jeannie, also spoke at the meeting, calling her husband a dedicated coach who has given countless hours of his time all with the aim of doing right by all of his charges.

The school board took no action. Before the meeting began, President Patrick Kane said the board was aware of the issues about the basketball team and would not comment about it at the meeting. He added that he had asked the administration to set up meetings so they could learn more. 

The team’s letter

The athletes asked Olivia Vanesko, a student representative serving on the school board, to read their letter as they stood behind her during the public comment section of the meeting.

The letter said players approached the coaches to discuss how their treatment was affecting their mental health, but the coaches dismissed their claims and were told they were the ones being disrespectful. When they approached Athletic Director Geoff Haines, they said they were told none of their complaints constituted “criminal behavior” and he couldn’t do anything unless the coaches were physically abusing them.

“We cannot for one minute understand how two male coaches’ verbally degrading high school female athletes and impacting their mental health does not rise to the level for an athlete director to address and correct the situation accordingly,” the letter states. “In addition, because Mr. Haines did not keep the meeting attendees or details discussed at the meeting confidential, the treatment of these specific athletes has become worse.”

The letter listed a number of actions and comments by the coaches.

One player was asked in the middle of a game “if someone had slipped something in her drink,” the second time that comment had been made. The teammate had cramps and did not feel well but the men were “clearly implying she was intoxicated,” saying that harmed the girl’s reputation.

They were told they were embarrassing the coach, were called horrible and an embarrassment during the game and that they lost a game because of their character.

“One could say we lost because of poor play, poor coaching, poor attitude; all things that can be affected by one particular situation or circumstance, but to blame the loss on our character?”

They said a player was benched for multiple games for going on a school-sanctioned college visit.

A portion of the letter was dedicated to what they allege is a conflict of interest in clear violation of school police No. 3214 that states, “No teaching staff shall use or attempt to use his/her position to secure unwarranted privileges or advantages.”

That revolves around Cappelletti’s daughter, a sophomore member of the varsity team.

“The majority of coach Cappelletti’s poor behavior comes from the fact he is a parent coach,” the letter reads. “He is gaining personal privileges and advantages by making everything on this team revolve around his daughter. This has created an incredibly toxic team environment.”

The athletes said that behavior started in mid-December at a morning practice during which players had to wait while the coach practiced with his daughter on the school shooting machine, but no other players were invited or allowed to participate.

They said the daughter did not have to abide by long-standing rule on substitutions and that other players have been yelled at and held responsible for mistakes made by the coach’s daughter.

“The coaches belittle us for any mistake that is made, but nothing is said to the coach’s daughter when she makes a mistake. This can be clearly seen on all of our games via Huddle,” they said.

The players claim they have talked to the coaches but have been dismissed or told to stop talking.

“We have never received an explanation or had a real conversation. There is no constructive criticism, just screaming or name calling,” the letter read. Even during three buzzer-beating victories, they received no praise and are accused of being disrespectful to their coaches.

“We are hurt, we are sad, we are depressed and we are done being treated like victims by these two inappropriate men. We are constantly worried about what they are going to say or do next, which is very unnerving, and it makes it very hard to focus in a game or in practice,” they said.

“We have expressed our feelings and tried to have our voices heard, to our coaches and the administration, but have not been heard. We are asking you to please do something. We are high school girls who just want to play basketball and some of us have college opportunities that are being hindered by this coach,” the letter stated. 

It cited an instance during which a college coach had come to watch a player but Cappelletti did not tell the player about it until four days later.

The letter noted there are only four girls on junior varsity, that three quit before tryouts ended because of how they were treated, three other players quit during the season, and that prospective players now in seventh and eighth grade have said they won’t go to OCHS if Cappelletti and Kelley continue as coaches.

“We are here to stand up for what is right and simply the only option left in this situation. The administration has ignored us and our cries for help. Even as far as to tell us ‘we are winning so it can’t be that bad.’” (The girls team had a 15-8 record as of the end of last week.)

“We are asking the board to not renew the coaching contracts of Mr. Michael Cappelletti and Mr. Tim Kelley as the O.C. girls’ basketball coaches for their actions, breaking of the board’s policy, their inappropriate words and verbal degradation, which again impacts all of our mental health,” the letter concludes.

Because speakers were allotted a maximum of 5 minutes to speak, a parent finished the letter for Vanesko, who ran out of time.

“Where we’re at now, all that it took to get the entire team together, was absolutely inevitable,” Dan Ritzel said. 

His daughter is a sophomore on the basketball team. Ritzel said he sent a letter to Haines after Baruffi retired, “telling him exactly what was going to happen” if Cappelletti was hired because the new coach would just look out for his daughter — that the team would suffer, other players would suffer and School Choice students wouldn’t come to OCHS — but his concerns were dismissed. 

Ritzel said the process to hire the new coach was a sham, that there was a much more qualified Division I female teaching at the high school, “but we all knew how it was going to go.”

He asked the board to act that night, rather than say they would have some meetings and put off the decision, and that whoever made the choice to hire Cappelletti has lost credibility and that the search for a new coach should not involve any of those people. 

“Either you’re going to stand with these student athletes or you’re going to stand with him,” Ritzel said.

Wife defends

her husband

Jeannie Cappelletti stood before the board to talk about her husband, saying he has been a coach as long as she has known him, first for football and then for basketball as well.

“He has given his heart and soul to this program for the last 15 years,” she said. “He coached both sports throughout the summer, not taking extra jobs .… He has always given 110 percent to the students of Ocean City.

“For almost 20 years, I have seen the time and dedication he puts into coaching at Ocean City High School. I can guarantee you no one watches more game film than him,” she said. “He gets home after practice, after a game, it doesn’t matter, he’s on the iPad watching film. All you have to do is watch him coach. He knows what most teams are going to do before they even do it.”

“He wants what is best for all the kids and makes sure he is giving his all in order to do right by them,” she said. 

She added that he is constantly working on strategies and that as a testament to his devotion former students come to their house years later because he has given them recommendations for jobs. 

She said there were 50 football players in their front yard chanting for him. A few years ago, a group of players gave him a baseball cap saying “In Cap We Trust” as an end-of-season gift. 

Just a week ago, she said, a former player contacted him as she was winding down her career and was reflecting on how she appreciated having his guidance and support.

The coach’s wife pointed out he brought on two former players as assistant volunteer coaches who jumped at the chance to be part of the Ocean City basketball program again. 

She reminded the board how back in 2015, Cappelletti collapsed before a football game and was airlifted to Philadelphia on three occasions, had two open-heart surgeries and a third surgery within a month — the final surgery just before Thanksgiving. 

“Anyone else would have been done with coaching for the year, but he got his strength back” and was back as an assistant coach right after Christmas break because he didn’t want to let the coach or the girls down.

“He is passionate when he coaches all of the players because he wants everyone to be successful,” she said. “He has dealt with a lot this season but he continued to hold his head high and remain positive with the girls and keep pushing forward, but why wouldn’t he? He’s a class act full of integrity and always does what’s right for everyone.”

Board reacts

“We heard what you said,” board member Cecelia Gallelli-Keyes said during the board comment session. “Hopefully the board will come together collectively, will look at everything, and hopefully we can come together and come up with some kind of solution. And to the girls basketball team, I give you props for coming up and standing up and telling your story.”

Fellow board member Bill Holmes said he appreciated the people who came to speak out at the meeting on different topics, but wouldn’t get into specifics. Similarly, he said he has received emails but is not allowed to respond to them individually.

“I’m not going to get into either side, I don’t play that up here,” he said. “I look at all of it and then we’ll make a decision from there, but I will commend you. No matter what you were up here for speaking, thank you. It takes a lot of guts to get up in front of everybody.”

School board member Disston Vanderslice said it “seems like a really, really tough situation with the girls basketball team on both sides. … We hear you all and it doesn’t fall on deaf ears.”

– DAVID NAHAN, SENTINEL STAFF