Megliola: Caparaso leaves Bellingham football for coaching job in Florida
Lenny Megliola
He was brash and different. Loud. In that full length black faux leather coat and black beard, the man was pretty intimidating too. Seemed like Dale Caparaso could have ridden with the James Gang.
Oh, he knew the perception. "They would have run me out of Dodge a long time ago," says Caparaso, Dodge in this instance being Bellingham where he settled in 12 years ago as the new head coach of an up-and-down program.
They didn't run him out because if you got to know him you understood that was just Coach Cap. He couldn't help himself. He had this thing about perfection, which he strived for and feared and. ... well, we'll visit that later.
He won too, so naturally the fine folk of Bellingham, the parents, the townies and surely the players thought that was a nice change. The Blackhawks won Super Bowls in '93, '98, '00 and '01. He may have been misunderstood in some quarters, but the man could coach.
He still will, but at a new address. The Bellingham ride is over. Caparaso went hunting for a coaching job in Florida, lined up five interviews, got three under his belt last week, was driving to the other two, stopped for lunch at Wendy's with his wife, Mary, and 12-year-old son Zach, and the damnest thing happened (twice!) as they chomped on burgers and fries.
Caparaso's cell phone rang. Pasco High, 25 miles north of Tampa, offered him the job. Minutes later, his phone rang again. Sebring High would welcome your services, Mr. Caparaso.
He backed off the other two interviews, returned to Pasco, and liked what he heard. They would also hire his wife, Mary, a special ed teacher. Wherever they wound up, it was going to be a package deal. They checked houses, found something they liked. Things were moving awfully fast for the new coach of the Pasco High Pirates.
Yesterday, Caparaso told his players. The big bear of a man choked up.
"Oh yeah," says Caparaso, "It was the most emotional time of my life."
He had previously told some of his senior players that this might happen, that he was searching. He could trust them.
"I knew they'd be tight-lipped," says Caparaso. As for the other players, "some might have mildly suspected, others were caught off-guard."
The distance from Bellingham to Pasco is measured in more than miles. It's not that Pasco's that much bigger -- 1,288 students to 950 -- but hey, this is Florida football the man's jumping into.
"Pasco's field is enormous," says Caparaso. "It has Bermuda grass and there's not a brown spot to be found." Pasco's stadium can hold around 10,000, Caparaso estimates. In the Tri-Valley League, 1,000 fans is a very a good crowd. Two Pasco grads are in the NFL, linebacker Darren Hambrick of the Browns and his brother Troy, the Cowboys' running back. Pasco has spring practice starting May 1, so Caparaso will be heading down on the Friday before April vacation.
The new job description: coach football and oversee five periods of weightlifting. "How can you go wrong with that?" says Caparaso. Translation: Ain't it grand that this passes as a full-time job in that crazed football state?
After Pasco's head coach quit (the Pirates were 6-4 last season), nine assistants were left. Caparaso expects to keep all of them, and bring four or five of the Bellingham assistants with him.
Did Caparaso just feel he'd done all he can do in Bellingham? In a way. "I'm always challenging myself," he says. "Another reason is, I'm sick and tired of the weather. I've never liked the cold."
Caparaso's from Milford, Conn. and coached at Attleboro before Bellingham. He was a finalist for the Framingham State College job last year.
So you wonder what drives someone like Caparaso and it has to do with one word, "perfection," and one man, his father.
"Anything short of perfection is unacceptable," says Caparaso. "That's what drives me. I know no one can be perfect, but the day you don't strive to be perfect is the time to get out of the business. My father was that way. Nothing was ever perfect for my father. He was a blue-collar worker all his life.
"I strive to be a perfect husband. A perfect father (he also has a daughter in college). The perfect football coach. I'm a far cry from perfect. I'm just below the average Joe on the street. I'm not better than anyone, or lesser.
"Except for my looks. I think I'm better-looking than most people."
He couldn't recall his overall record at Bellingham (it's 89-43) but the last five years he went 49-9 with three Super Bowl wins. "I put that on my resume," he says.
Think that didn't jump out at the Florida people?
In Bellingham, he left his mark with his outsized persona, the force of his personality, this man who "doesn't sleep well, I never have."
It mattered what they thought of him in town. Ask him about the highlights and he doesn't start with the bowl wins or the great games against Hopkinton and Millis. "The people," he says. "The players, the coaches, the parents, the colleagues. Phenomenal. Mr. (principal Gil) Trudeau, Mr. (AD Dennis) Baker."
Thinking it over now, the 46-year-old Caparaso says "I needed Bellingham as much as Bellingham needed me." He voices some regret over "a lot of outsiders that'll never get to know me."
So what does this Lombardi clone who can't sleep, a man who roars through life, do to wind down? He's found a way. He owns two boats, "a 32-footer we can live on and an 18-footer to fish and cruise in."
Put him on one of the boats with Mary on a seamless summer day and out comes a Caparaso only a handful have seen. Unplugged. The ocean. The boat. "It's when I take a deep breath," he says, "and have no worries."
Dennis Baker had coached at Bellingham once and was Ashland's baseball coach when Caparaso arrived. "I saw this big, burly guy who was hollering and screaming," says Baker. "I was wondering if he was really getting his point across. I had to get to know this guy." So he did.
"There's more to the man than what you see. He's got a heart of gold. He turned out to be a legend."
Caparaso will sell the boats and buy a new one in Florida. Absolutely.
"I'll be on a boat next December," he says, pleased and amused at the notion. We can say it now. Dale Caparaso has finally come out of the cold.
(Lenny Megliola is a News sports columnist)