Counsel supports assistant coach, speaks up for all New Jersey coaches
OCEAN CITY – Parents of Ocean City High School girls basketball players renewed their pleas to not renew the head coach’s contract last week and a former school board president asked the board to rise up and make a difference for the students. After that, counsel for the assistant coach stood up for his friend, saying he would never represent a bully and that high school coaches throughout the state are facing a barrage of “appalling conduct” by players and their parents.
The primary topic during public comment at the April 27 Ocean City Board of Education meeting was concerns not being addressed with the coaches for the girls basketball team. Two parents who spoke before at board meetings talked again about what they considered head coach Michael Cappelletti’s behavior that led team members to appear before the board in February and ask that his contract not be renewed. The focus Wednesday evening was the belief the administration had failed in its response.
Parent Joe Monteleone said in January the girls went to the athletic director to report problems and in February 10 of the 11 varsity players and the three junior varsity players appeared before the school board to air their concerns. He asserted nothing was done to rectify the situation by the coach, and that the athletic director who is in charged of HIB complaints (Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying) did not follow procedures.
Business Administrator Tim Kelley interrupted Monteleone to caution him that the board could not be held responsible for anything slanderous or libelous he said regarding personnel matters. Monteleone responded that he was confident in everything he was saying.
Monteleone made the point that the girls who lodged the complaints are among the top student athletes at OCHS, all honor roll students who have earned a total of 33 varsity letters, including 20 in other sports and 13 playing for former basketball coach Paul Baruffi, and had never expressed issues with any coach before.
“I ask you a simple question,” Monteleone said. “Who has more credibility?”
He told members of the Ocean City Education Association, who were at the meeting to support the coaches, that they were instead undermining the girls and downplaying their feelings. He said they should be advocating for the children.
“Do you think they would have gone to the AD and in front of the Board of Ed if they were having a normal experience with a coach? They’ve had the worst experience of their athletic lives,” Monteleone said.
Before asking the board not to renew the coach’s contract, he reminded them that they told the girls and the parents they are listening. “I hope you mean what you say,” he said.
Jill Mullen Adamson said parents remain committed to making sure the best interests of children are protected.
“To this day, months later, we have never been contacted by the coaches or administration in any attempt to mediate or intervene in any meaningful, unbiased, transparent, ethical or legitimate fashion,” she said. “We will never know if proper remediation, discipline or intervention would have been successful and prevented all of this because it never happened.”
Adamson said administrators have ignored and dismissed the girls’ complaints and failed to follow protocols.
She said others would like to speak out but fear retribution and retaliation because so much time has been spent discrediting the students who complained and their families.
She said the OCEA has the right to rally around one of their own, but pointed out a coaching position is unrelated to tenure.
Adamson asked the board to consider the precedent it would set by renewing the coach’s position. “You’ll show the public that an administration can infiltrate the process with rampant micro-intimidation, harassment, disbelief and discredit of these girls, policy negligence, violation of codes of conduct and professional standards, and conflicts of interest so pervasive in the administrative methods that a fair and legit process seems impossible,” she said.
The priority should not be about picking sides, but being a champion of the mental wellness of children.
“The current circumstances are destroying the basketball program, as it has already eroded and, no doubt, there will be even greater damage done if we don’t address this problem,” she said, adding only the school board can change the culture.
“We put our faith in you to allow clear heads to prevail for the best interest of the students in the district,” she said.
Dennis Mullen, former school board member, board president and father of Adamson, offered an impassioned plea to the board of education to help work out the issues with the basketball team.
Mullen, who was integral in helping get the new high school built, said he understands how tough a job it is for school board members, recalling how during the fight for the new high school truth became lies and lies became truth. He said they never gave up because of one principle – this was for the children of the community for decades to come. He said he was proud to see how the board is paying off the last bonds for the high school this year. Mullen said he never put anything ahead of the kids – their protection, their safety is all that matters. He said the school board is the guardians of the children. If those children are threatened, he told the board, “you need to rise up.”
During his tenure on the board, he said, “if somebody complained about something that should have been followed up on, we got on it. This did not happen. This problem didn’t get fixed. God bless us all if that is the worst it ever gets.”
He said if it happens again on a more serious note, “you’ll all have to hang your heads in shame over that. Don’t let that happen. You can fix this. You can rise up and make a difference. Do what you gotta do. Look into it. Investigate. And find out who is doing what to who.”
He told them to sort out the truth from the lies.
Speaking up for Kelley, NJ coaches
Upper Township resident Tyler Stampone said he is personal counsel to assistant basketball coach Tim Kelley, “who has been wrangled in to” some of the allegations. He said he was adjusting his comments because of closed session hearings that were to take place later in the meeting. (No public information came out of those closed sessions.)
At past meetings and even at a City Council meeting, Stampone said, concerns of the girls basketball team have been aired. He said when serious allegations come to light, they should be investigated.
“Coach Kelley and I wholeheartedly agree about that as sons to mothers, as husbands to wives, and as fathers to daughters,” he said, adding he had no information to indicate that the board has failed to perform any required actions.
Mr. Kelley’s union representatives are on top of this, Stampone said, and the board is in no way a target of a future investigation.
“I’m here for coach Kelley because I know coach Kelley. I don’t hitch my wagon to bullies, harassers, intimidators, child abusers or worse. I routinely represent bullied and abused children in my daily law practice,” Stampone said.
In past school board meetings, other members of the public have stood up to support head coach Cappelletti, lauding his behavior as a coach and as a person. Former players when he was the assistant coach also have come out in support of Cappelletti.
Stampone said free speech, defamation, privacy law and their intersection with the explosion of the internet allow anonymous trolling to flourish. “The allegations against coach Tim, in my opinion, are false, defamatory” and are “severely detrimental to his reputation in the eyes of the community.”
Saying he speaks only for coach Kelley, he added that as a former varsity head and assistant coach at a high school level, he also speaks for all the New Jersey coaches in today’s “toxic amateur sports climate.” Just read the news, he said, adding every day there is another horrifying story about the appalling conduct of parents and players toward coaches, officials, administrators and other players.
He finished with a quote from former Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Lemon and said it can be applied to any amateur sport. “Baseball was made for kids and grownups only screw it up.”
Olivia Vanesko, a multi-sport varsity athlete and one of the student representatives to the board of education, spoke up at the meeting and said she wanted to voice her support for the girls basketball team. She said she is a former player under coach Cappelletti and that she has a younger sister who is on track to be one of the best players in the state, “and she has chosen to take her skill elsewhere because of the coaching staff here.”
In February, Vanesko was asked to read the basketball team’s statement to the board.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff