New football game in town 

April 9, 2010
by Christine Yeres

At the March 23 town board meeting, John Re, chairman of the New Castle Recreation Commission, announced that the Recreation Department “is in the process of interviewing people to run the [youth football] program, and we’re looking to align the program with USA Football.” Left unsaid at that time was the fact that Pete Zimmerman, proprietor of EZ Sport and for 25 years the volunteer point-person who ran the youth football league for the town rec department, would be replaced by a new part-time town employee.

Reached by phone this week, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Robert Snyder confirmed that he is interviewing for a “football guru” to run the program, and that the new hire will take on the work performed until now by Zimmerman, a 50-year resident of New Castle and Greeley graduate who played varsity football for Greeley.

Snyder insisted that this new hire would not increase his personnel budget, as this person would assume the part-time position held last year by a paid field supervisor, who turned on lights, set up blocking dummies and put up the yard markers. He plans to expand the scope of this part-time position to include management of the whole youth football program. That would include, Snyder explained, “more hands-on teaching of the game, including coaching parents and forming up teams,” duties performed on a volunteer basis for the last 25 years by Zimmerman.

Traditionally, the rec department has registered participants, collected fees for the program, then turned to volunteers coaches – headed by Zimmerman – to run the day-to-day practices, scrimmages and games for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Players graduate to the seventh and eighth grade middle school “modified” football programs, and afterward to high school, where – just as in the youth program – there are no cuts, everybody plays who wants to. Unlike youth football teams in most surrounding towns, the fact that New Castle’s recreational football teams only play each other allows the program to field more players and more teams. It’s unclear whether an affiliation with USA Football would have any effect on that tradition.

Mid-season altercation  

In October of last year, frustrated by the absence of referees for the kick-off of an evening of games, Zimmerman blamed Aaron Podhurst, the full-time rec department supervisor of the football program whose job it was to schedule refs. When Podhurst appeared on the football field, Zimmerman lost his temper in front of players and parents, cursing at Podhurst over the still-absent refs, who in the end arrived an hour late.  

Days later, Snyder required Zimmerman to apologize to Podhurst as well as to players and parents, which Zimmerman did. But the incident – and some parents’ reaction to it – caused Snyder to take a hard look at the program, he said. Thereafter, Snyder and the rec commission explored more energetically the possibility of bringing the youth football program under the wing of an official organization like AYSO for soccer and NCBSA for baseball and softball.

In mid-February, Recreation Department Assistant Superintendent Wayne Bass informed Zimmerman that he would not be invited back to run the program, and Re announced on March 23 that the department was considering joining USA Football. (For more information about this program, go to www.usafootball.com).

Zimmerman still doesn’t know exactly who “fired” him from his volunteer job, since he never received the written confirmation he requested from Bass.  ”I’ve coached rec football for years,” said Dan Papes, a former Greeley varsity player and parent of a son in rec football, “and no one has contacted me to tell me about this change. We’ve had a very dedicated set of parents who’ve invested a tremendous amount of time in the football program. It’s my hope that the town will continue to take advantage of the institutional knowledge of the people who’ve been involved in it, especially the institutional knowledge that lies in the head of Pete Zimmerman, who knows more about it than anyone.”

Greeley football coach supportive of Zimmerman

“If dropping Pete has something to do with words,” said Greeley Varsity Football Coach Bill Tribou, “any kind of thing with words can be worked out. Pete Zimmerman has been a most valuable asset to the Chappaqua football community. From my standpoint he is the steady and motivating force behind youth football in town. He is into it all year round. I believe that it is a goal in his life to give every kid in New Castle the chance to play football. His fiery nature is what the game calls for. From the standpoint of football at the high school, Pete is the foremost authority on Greeley football. He is the football historian and he’s organized terrific events to celebrate that history. He has supported the program in every facet – financial, logistical, and most of all, emotionally. I consider him a valued advisor and friend. I can’t see how this can’t get worked out somehow.”

Snyder insisted, “This is not about Pete. Pete’s been great and has run a great program, and the whole Greeley football community owes a lot of its success to the hard work of Pete and a lot of volunteers. But I’ve been here 18 years and the program has gotten to the point where we’d like to take it in another direction. It was only partly parents’ reaction to last year’s incident that made us reexamine the program. The program has grown bigger, it’s more complicated to administer. It was just time to make a change. I hope Pete continues to be the big supporter of New Castle’s football community and to be the great resource he’s always been.”  

“We’re meeting in the next couple of weeks with someone who is very knowledgeable about football,” continued Snyder. “For the same amount of money, we think we can make the program work better and take it to the next level. We’re still in fact-finding mode with the USA Football affiliation, but everything I’ve seen so far leads me to think it’s a good thing. If there are costs associated with the affiliation, we may have to put it off for now, but we’re finding out.”

The program has grown from 50 to 120 kids

“It’s a terrific program to groom kids to play at Bell, Seven Bridges and Greeley,” said Lou Macente, head of NCSBA (New Castle Softball and Baseball Association). “Even after my son got out of it I continued to coach.” But Macente understands that the town could feel the need to create a stronger organizational structure. “There are 120 kids in the program now. It used to have fifty kids and you could run it on clipboards and little pieces of paper. At the end of the day, it’s been a great and safe program that’s made many players who excel every year on the Greeley football team, and I hope the rec department will call on Pete to continue as an advisor.”

“The question remains,” noted Jim Nottingham, a former high school and rec football coach and the parent of a son who went through the town’s recreational football program and currently plays for Greeley, “how much connection a new program will have with the overall district-wide football program. Rec football has been run by the rec department and Pete Zimmerman for 25 years, and it works.”

Nottingham, who was signed by the San Francisco 49ers after graduating from Yale in 1973 (and writes about Greeley JV and varsity football for NCNOW.org), explained, “A great number of former coaches and some parent coaches too have played Greeley football and have always volunteered to help out, even when their kids were no longer in it. Pete has been the linchpin that has held the program and the football community together all these years. Then there’s the day-to-day work during the season – a lot of hard work, checking equipment for each and every player every time they meet, from shoulder pads to kneepads, helmets, and mouth guards, making sure the uniforms protect the kids. There’s aligning the teams so that they play competitively and don’t get hurt. I can’t see how all that can be accomplished by switching out a part-timer who assists with lights and lines.”

But Snyder thinks he can do it simply by putting more into the job description. “We all have to do more in this fiscal climate,” he commented, “and so will any new, even part-time, employee. We’ve made some staff changes in the department, too. Matt Nordt will be the football point person now.”

Zimmerman on Zimmerman

Zimmerman acknowledges that he’s no politician, and that it was a mistake to let loose on Podhurst. A pessimist by nature, when it comes to football, Zimmerman is more than optimistic about every kid’s chance to love the game – he’s a true believer that football really matters. See “What is it about football???” NewCastleNOW.org, October 16, 2009.

“The rec department collects the money,” explained Zimmerman, “but everything else – how to tackle, who’s on what team, having the kids run out onto the Greeley competition field at half-time with their names announced – it’s all been me. I love it and I know what’s important to kids at this age.”

“My whole motivation,” said Zimmerman, “is to get coaching my kids again, and be doing what I know how to do for them. Some people might think that I coach football because I have the store, but it’s the other way around. I have the store because I love to coach football, and I want to find a way to keep doing it. Ask your kid what football means to him – all kids, from the weakest to the best player. They’re there because it means something to them. I’m there because it means something to them and to me.”