Dec. 20, 2003

The winds of fate brought basketball coach Joe Ciampi to the Hudson Valley and swept him away just as quickly, but his legacy lives on in the hearts of the people he touched along the way.

Ciampi is one of the most successful women's collegiate coaches ever. His Auburn University teams have played in the NCAA tournament 15 times and reached the national title game on three occasions. This weekend, Ciampi will reach the milestone of 800 college games coached, fittingly in the place where he honed his craft.

It's Homecoming weekend for Ciampi and his family as Auburn, ranked No. 23, plays Army at West Point today and takes on Marist College in Poughkeepsie tomorrow.

Ciampi spent five seasons (1972-77) teaching physical education and coaching boys' basketball at Marlboro. By good fortune he became Army's first varsity women's coach, guiding the team to two winning seasons at a time when female cadets were struggling for acceptance at the previously all-male U.S. Military Academy.

The coaching ledger reads 36 winning seasons, and not a losing one in the bunch, but Ciampi has also excelled away from the court as a family man, a dedicated worker, a teacher and a kind-hearted soul.

"I loved him and his family,'' said Kim (Hall) Topping, who played on Ciampi's first Army team. "As a person, I thought he was genuine, he was honest, his love of the game was something I respected. He was really a father figure and a great guy.''

"He was a great guy to play for (and) had the utmost respect of all of his players,'' said Frank Taddeo, who played on Ciampi's first Marlboro team in 1972-73. "I learned a lot from him and also learned a lot about communication with players and positive reinforcement. ... I've taken that into my own coaching.''

CIAMPI IS proud of his accomplishments, but he deflects the credit to those who worked with him.

"You remember that you were a small part of it all,'' Ciampi said. "Those players working for you every day, and that coaching staff working for you and with you ... I'm so appreciative (of them). They've given me this opportunity.''

Knowing the right people didn't hurt, either. Former Marlboro principal Jack O'Donnell grew up in Nanticoke, Pa., where Ciampi went to high school. Both graduated from Mansfield College, so O'Donnell hired one of his own when he brought Ciampi to the Hudson Valley.

"I guess it was guilt by association,'' laughs Marlboro athletic director Dennis Burkett, hired with Ciampi in the fall of 1972. Burkett and Ciampi became very close friends.

"You don't like to use the term life and death, other than as an analogy,'' Burkett said, "but we were very serious about (our coaching). Not only did he know the fundamentals, but he knew how to handle people, how to deal with people, how to motivate kids, how to push the right buttons."

The emphasis for that first Marlboro team - and all of his teams - was defense and rebounding; the offense will follow, Ciampi would say. Ciampi won his debut as his Iron Dukes beat Verdell Payne's Chester club, 60-50, on Dec. 6, 1972.

"Once we started scrimmaging and saw the improvement in the team, compared to results from the prior year, everyone bought into his system quickly,'' said Taddeo, who now coaches football and baseball at Marlboro.

It didn't hurt that Ciampi guided Marlboro to 16 consecutive wins that first year and a one-point loss to Liberty in the league title game.

WOMEN WERE inducted into West Point for the first time in 1976, and a club basketball team enjoyed some success. Academy officials formed a search committee for its first varsity coach, and Col. Jim Peterson was named chairman.

Well-known local sportswriter Bo Gill recommended Ciampi for the job, and Peterson was thoroughly impressed with Ciampi's "attention to detail, his obvious love and enthusiasm and passion for the game.''

"He exceeded our expectations,'' Peterson said. "He worked well with the women. He was a good recruiter. ... He was everything we expected, wanted and needed.''

Ciampi was exactly what Army's female players needed, too.

"He was more than just a coach,'' said Melinda Miles, also on Ciampi's first Army team. "It was a whole big family affair. He would have the team come over. We could hang out at his house. We could study. We could take off our (military) uniforms and be casual.

"You could take off your military face and be human again. It was nice to have a place to get away from the military side.''

Army won 39 games in two seasons and placed second in the state tournament. The women's games became quite an attraction and afternoon contests at Central Gym became packed. "If the game was close you couldn't hear yourself think,'' said Army assistant sports information director Mady Salvani.

"I honestly believe, in my heart, it was a watershed moment for women at West Point,'' Peterson said. "What Joe's team did, because of their intensity and skill level, the male cadets could look at them and say, 'They are just like us.' ''

Ciampi's departure from West Point came about after Peterson took a sabbatical. Peterson's replacement, visiting professor Dr. Joanna Davenport, was the athletic director at Auburn. She recognized Ciampi's talents and offered him the Tigers' coaching position, which he accepted reluctantly.

"We were very, very happy at West Point and what we were doing,'' Ciampi said. "It's just the opportunity to coach at a major university in the (Southeastern Conference), which is a hotbed for women's athletics. ... We knew we had a great opportunity to compete for a national championship.''

Ciampi's Auburn teams have gone on to win nearly three-quarters of their games and lost in the national title game three years in a row. Ciampi still yearns for that national championship, but he's more proud of the people he has helped shape.

"I look at all the great athletes who have been Olympians and All-SEC, but the most important thing is they're successful people in what they are doing now. That's the bottom line,'' Ciampi said. "Teaching them to play in the real game, and that's the game of life, being successful and having the keys to open their own doors and not being dependent on anyone else.''