Mike Camardese, the longtime Canarsie football coach given an unsatisfactory rating by school administrators he has clashed with, has agreed to become the new junior varsity coach at Poly Prep.
Camardese had other options – he interviewed for the head-coaching position at Wantagh on Long Island and was offered an assistant job at Catholic schools Monsignor Farrell and Holy Cross – but felt coaching under Dino Mangiero at Poly Prep was the perfect fit.
“It’s like coaching at a small college,” he said. “The weight room is unbelievable. Dino does a great job. Everything you can think of, they have. The field is great. The whole situation is great. I’ve been there like, three, four times. They make you feel like family. You’re in football heaven there.”
He was waiting until the school filled the position, which it did with current track & field coach Carl Allen, he said. When a coach is given a ‘U’ rating, it gives the school grounds for dismissal.
Canarsie athletic director Dale Wilson has declined to comment on the matter.
Mangiero said Camardese will also help the varsity. Longtime Canarsie assistants Maurice Jones and Bernard Titley will join Camardese at the private school as well, Camardese said.
“He’s a tremendous person, number one, [and] I always admired him as a football coach,” Mangiero said. “He really does a great job. He’s helped so many kids over the years. I’m happy he’ll join us. … The kids at Canarsie are really going to miss him. There are not a lot of guys like Mike Camardese.”
The fiery coach, who wrapped up his 28th season on the sidelines in the winter, has compiled a 194-100 record and led the Chiefs to four city championship games, the last one in 2007.
He guided Canarsie to the PSAL Championship division playoffs with a 7-2 record this past year, has sent countless players to the Division I level and has coached NFL players Lance Schulters and Leon Williams.
Camardese isn’t giving up on his fight to remove the ‘U’ rating, but is waiting out the grievance process he has filed with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which can take up to eight months. He’s pretty much given up on ever returning to coach at Canarsie, as currently constituted.
“If they’re still there, I don’t know if I can [go back],” he said of the current administration. “The problem there is the administration – it’s not the kids, it’s not the coaches.”
Camardese does think Allen can do the job.
“He’s been coaching with us, he played for me,” Camardese said. “He’s a competitor. He’ll do the job there if the administration helps him.”