Sieflecki brightens outlook for Yale

College football coaches dream about coaching at the No. 1 school in the nation. Yale coach Jack Siedlecki, however, is one of the few for whom this dream is actually a reality. No, the Elis didn't magically leap past Ohio State in the rankings. They didn't even surpass the Division I-AA leaders from Georgia Southern. What Yale University did do, however, was tie Harvard and Princeton for the top spot in U.S. News and World Report's annual college ranking. It is this ranking that makes Siedlecki feel right at home at a university more noted for Nobel Prizes than Heisman Trophies. "I've coached for 17 years at really good academic schools," Siedlecki said. "Our kids have other interests. They're going to challenge you." A quick glance at Siedlecki's coaching resume will reveal a list of teams where the star tailback's SAT score is usually significantly higher than his season rushing total. "[Yale's players] are going to be something way beyond football, but right now football is very important to them," Siedlecki said. Likewise, football has always been important to Siedlecki, who started attending daily high school football practices when he was five years old. Siedlecki didn't play yet, but instead he went to practice with his father, the head football coach at Johnstown (N.Y.) High School. Several years later Siedlecki made his own mark at Johnstown. While in high school, Siedlecki lettered in baseball and basketball in addition to football, where he played running back, linebacker and on special teams. While he excelled on the gridiron, baseball was actually Siedlecki's best sport and the one he thought gave him the best chance to play professionally. An arm injury suffered while pitching at Union College, however, ended his dreams of success on the diamond. When Siedlecki's college years at Union came to a close, it looked as if his athletic career had ended as well. Siedlecki had been around football since he was old enough to walk, but it looked as if his future was headed elsewhere. Siedlecki started working for Electronic Data Systems in the mid-1970s. EDS was a company in its early years under the direction of Ross Perot. While Perot made enough money to almost singlehandedly fund two presidential campaigns in the following decades, Jack Siedlecki thought he belonged elsewhere -- a place that he knew well and loved. In 1976, Jack Siedlecki returned to the football field. He took a job as a linebacker coach at Albany State, where he forged a relationship with another young coach, Albany State defensive coordinator and current Penn coach Al Bagnoli. Bagnoli and Siedlecki were roommates at this time and began a friendship that is still strong for the two current Ivy League coaches. "Coaching is early in the morning until late at night. You're together 15 or 16 hours a day," Bagnoli said. "He's a good guy, a lot of fun to be around, good sense of humor, just a quality guy." The days of Siedlecki and Bagnoli spending all day together are long past, but through the years, the coaches and their families have not lost touch. "Al and I have become good friends," Siedlecki said. "I went to his wedding. He went to mine." Siedlecki's wife, Nancy, has also become close with Bagnoli and his wife Maryellen. One summer, while Bagnoli was coaching at Union in the 1980s, he and his family invited the Siedleckis to their house for a cookout. Jack and Nancy returned the favor another summer, and the families have remained friendly since. "Our children are very close in age," Nancy said. "We've seen each other many times over the years at 40th birthday parties and other events." While Albany State offered Siedlecki a chance to begin his coaching career, he soon moved on. After a year at Wagner, Siedlecki joined the Lafayette staff, where he guided the Leopards defense for four seasons. Once again, Siedlecki found himself on the sidelines with another one of his future colleagues. This time, he coached on the same staff as current Harvard coach Tim Murphy. After a decade as an assistant coach, Siedlecki finally reached the top rung of the coaching ladder in 1988 when he secured the head job at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. A four-year stint at WPI led to a position at Amherst. In four years at Amherst, Siedlecki turned around the Division III program, topping it off with a New England Small College Athletic Conference championship in 1996. By 1996, the year Perot was making his second bid for the presidency, Jack Siedlecki had also reached the position he hoped for when he left EDS in 1976. Siedlecki was a rising star in the world of college coaching. After legendary Elis coach Carm Cozza retired, Yale was looking for someone to turn around a program that had sunk to the bottom of the Ivy League pool. Yale looked to Jack Siedlecki. Siedlecki recalls an interview with six players who were part of the committee formed to find a new coach. The players asked Siedlecki why he wanted to come to Yale and not to Notre Dame or Rhode Island, two teams that also had coaching vacancies. "First of all, Notre Dame didn't call me. Rhode Island didn't call me," Siedlecki told the students. "I belong here or at a place like this. My experience is with this type of student athlete." Siedlecki's experience with bright student athletes has certainly been beneficial to the Elis. In his second season as head coach, Yale is 2-1 in the Ivy League, and its one loss was in a very close contest with Dartmouth. The Elis are currently locked in four-way tie for first place with Penn, Harvard and Princeton. "Whether he was at Lafayette or at Amherst or at WPI or at Yale, Jack enjoys those type of kids, because they can do a lot of things intellectually that he wants them to do," Bagnoli said. "He's a bright, creative guy, so he can do things and make his players adapt to it." Siedlecki's approach to coaching develops this thinking about football and instills a willingness to achieve success on the gridiron in his players. "[Jack] enjoys coaching down to the simplest part of working with the athletes," Yale defensive coordinator Rick Flanders said. "He still breaks down film like he's a GA [graduate assistant] at Albany State." Yale football is rising from the depths of being an Ivy League doormat. Jack Siedlecki has brought a new style and a new life to the Elis. He makes students at one of the nation's top universities use their intellect on the football field. The Elis will never have the talent to compete with Ohio State or Nebraska. But as long as Yale is at the top of the academic world, Jack Siedlecki will be at home.