Mike Camardese couldn’t walk two steps without being stopped by a student. Each one shook his hand, patted him on the back or asked how they could help. Others shouted encouragement from across the street.
The longtime Canarsie football coach and retired physical education teacher, currently out of the job he has done for nearly three decades, smiled and nodded.
“It’s like a funeral around here,” he said, shaking his head like he was disagreeing with a holding penalty in a resigned manner.
For the time being, it is.
On May 7, Camardese, 56, was given an unsatisfactory rating by school administrators, which gives them the power to dismiss him. The job opening has been posted, but a replacement has yet to be named. Junior varsity coach Joseph Brown is running spring practices.
One of the longest-tenured and winningest football coaches in New York City, Camardese is appealing the ‘U’ rating with the United Federation of Teachers, but that could take up to eight months, the coach said. He declined to elaborate on the basis of ‘U’ rating for fear it could hurt his appeal, but did say it was “little irrelevant things they are trying to get me. It’s no scandal. It’s all nonsense.”
Camardese, for example, has been faulted for having alumni in the locker room with the team. He’s been blamed for assistant coaches parking in unauthorized parkings spots, he said.
Athletic director Dale Wilson referred all comments to Department of Education spokesperson Margie Feinberg. In a statement, she said: “We cannot comment on a teacher’s personnel record. The campus has strong PSAL programs for students who attend schools there.”
Since Canarsie was phased out a few years ago and turned into Canarsie Educational Campus, a series of smaller schools, Camardese said the school has changed. A group of principals for each school was brought in and he has butted heads with school administrators on a variety of issues
“For 30 years I had never had a problem with anybody,” said Camardese, who compiled a 194-100 mark, led the Chiefs to four city championship games, the last one in 2007, and sent countless athletes to play at the next level, including NFL players Leon Williams and Lance Schulters. “I’m here for the kids. It’s the kids who are getting hurt.”
One of those such kids is Donchervel Smith, Canarsie’s hulking middle linebacker/fullback. The junior was just beginning to pick up significant Division I interest when Camardese was issued the ‘U’ rating. He’s spoken with Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse and Maine over the phone, but there is nobody at the actual school to help in the process.
“Colleges are coming to school to see him and there’s no coach,” Smith’s father, Fred, said. “That’s creating a problem.”
Championship banners of all sports were taken down by the old administration, Camardese said. He said practice time was cut by an hour last fall and several veteran volunteer assistant coaches were fired. The team was banned from using the weight room during the offseason and were only given a five-hour permit for home games, Camardese said. In fact, before a game against Lincoln last year the team arrived to school early, but wasn’t allowed inside until 10 a.m. and forced to wait outside in a snowstorm.
“They made it impossible to coach,” he said.
Mark Igla, an athletic director with the former administration and an assistant coach under Camardese, saw the change firsthand. He served as AD for a few months under the new administration and was met with several roadblocks. Just getting an athlete’s grades to make sure they were eligible was a chore. Several teams have been dropped in recent years, such as both bowling teams, the boys volleyball team, the girls junior varsity basketball team and even boys soccer, which is now back at the developmental stage.
“From what I saw, they wanted to get rid of sports,” Igla said. “My contention is you know what college in the United States has the most teams? Harvard.”
Camardese said the athletic budget was virtually taken away and the program only remained alive because of donations from the Canarsie Chiefs Parent Football Club, which president Joan Boreland confirmed.
“I’ve known him since 2004 and he’s always looked out for the kids, always did right by them,” she said. “To me, that’s all that matters.”
Donchervel Smith added: “He’s more than a coach to me. It’s tough when we go into the locker room and he’s not in his office.”
Boreland said there isn’t a single parent of a football player that isn’t upset with the news; several, in fact, are looking into taking their children out of the school. Like Camardese, the parents are unhappy with the current administration. Boreland has attempted to meet with principal Joseph Scarmato on multiple occasions over the past year, but has been rebuffed each time. When she speaks with Wilson, the athletic director, the talks have gone nowhere.
“This administration has not proven to me to be supportive of student athletes and there are a lot of parents who agree with this,” she said.
Camardese is the best – and most recent – example. He plans to fight to get his job back, like his teams have fought for him over the years. He’s waiting for a date on his appeal. When Canarsie fills the position, he can – and will – file a grievance. He’s looking into hiring legal counsel.
For now, he has to wait.
“They’re taking something away from me I’ve done every day for the last 30 years,” Camardese said. “They have no respect for what me and my staff have done. We’ve gotten more kids into college than they ever will.”