The kid from Johnston finds a home at Yale

Jack was, among other things, point guard of the Johnston High School Sir Bills. "He was the worst shooter in the history of Johnston High School," Jack Dunlap, coach of the Sir Bills for 33 seasons, says. "He shot bricks. He passed the ball so he wouldn't end up shooting it." Dunlap, though, kept Siedlecki on the court for a reason: "He could see things unfold before they happened." The coach had detected something special from the very beginning. "Some people are born with that ability to see things. Jack was."

Like the paper mills and the glove and leather industries, the Siedleckis are mostly gone from Johnston now (only a daughter remains) but the town paper, the Leader-Herald, still keeps three columns each Sunday for the weekly update on how Johnston's favorite son, Jack Siedlecki, is faring in his most recent attempt at turning around a college football program. Jack, the son of John. Jack, the guy could make Yale football an Ivy power once again.

"All of us are proud as hell of him," Dunlap says, speaking for the city that has never forgotten one of its most prominent families. "You see people here walking around wearing Yale shirts and hats all the time."

Perfect fit

Jack Siedlecki is here now, pacing the green sidelines of the Yale Bowl on these fall Saturday afternoons. Most days, the light in his office, on the corner of the Ray Tompkins House's third floor, will be turned on well into the night. In the fall, Siedlecki's days are long. They start with a stop at the East Haven Dunkin' Donuts, where his usual these days is a single order of medium coffee (he's watching his weight). He's in his office by 7:30 a.m. First meeting at 9:00 a.m.

It is a demanding, often grueling job, but no one said that turning around a lagging football program would be easy. "I know in my heart and in my soul that he will turn around that program over there," Dunlap says. "I'm telling you, Yale has hired the finest young football coach in America today. Give him three or four years. He may even win [the league title] this year. He'll do it. He'll find a way."

Those who know him best know that Siedlecki will indeed find a way. Dunlap, who was also the school's assistant football coach, remembers a day many Septembers ago when Jack Siedlecki showed him a toughness that he didn't know existed. It was one of those cool Friday nights under the lights, Siedlecki was the Sir Bills' tailback, and his team was facing a tough local rival. The opposing team featured one of the finest defensive players in New York state, Ted Jornov, an eventual All-American at Iowa State and future NFL linebacker. "Jack kept taking these unmerciful poundings from Jornov. He would carry the ball for five yards and Jornov would crunch him. But he'd get up, every time. He must have carried the ball 25 times. That night, Jack Siedlecki showed me what kind of guy he is. He took a physical beating, but he just kept getting up. It was remarkable." The Sir Bills won the game. "We won because of Jack. He was the heart and soul of the team."

"I've only known him as a football coach," Nancy Siedlecki, Jack's wife of over 15 years, says. "He's always been a football coach. That's the only thing I see him as. And this is the job that he's always wanted."

John Siedlecki's kid

Was there ever any doubt that Siedlecki, the son of a football coach, the three-sport athlete, the leader of every team he played on, would be a football coach?

"I thought [coaching football] was the farthest thing from his mind," Dunlap says. "I'd never thought he'd go into it. He saw what his father went through, he knew what it was all about."

A large bookshelf stands in his office with two lone, large grainy black-and-white photos sitting on both ends. Both photos are of his father. John was a prominent city figure who, after working as the Sir Bills' football coach, was the high school principal and athletic director. "I was always John Siedlecki's kid," Jack says. "He was really well-known around town." In his last six seasons as football coach, John's Sir Bills were unbeaten.

But the father never got to see the son coach. He died in 1974, when Jack was working at Electronic Data Systems in New York and Dallas. Two years later, the son took a job as an assistant coach at the University of Albany for an annual salary of $1,100. Despite the paltry pay, he realized that he never should have left the football field.

Siedlecki's current players will be the first to tell you that he doesn't like talking about himself. Joe Walland, SY '00, the Bulldog quarterback, admits that he really doesn't know that much about his coach's past. "I know that he's turned around some programs, but we've never really talked about his life. He doesn't like talking about himself."

Maybe it runs in the family. "My dad never said anything about himself," Jack says. One day, Jack went out behind his house to practice punting after his high school team's kicker was hit by a car. John came out with him. "We had two adjoining backyards," Jack says, "and he kicked that ball over the fence of the second one. He was 50-something years old. Later that night, my mom brought out this scrapbook. Turns out, my father led the nation in punting one year, was an All-American. I had no idea. He never said anything about it."

The new offense

Two seasons into his campaign, Siedlecki has built a legitimate Ivy championship contender. Memories of the 1996-97 season are long forgotten. Known for his great offensive mind, Siedlecki has established a wide-open pass offense that has so far this season been nearly unstoppable. If the Bulldogs can get their lagging running game going, this offense may turn out to be the most explosive in the league. Walland's statline from his first two games is impressive: 462 yards passing, five touchdowns, one interception. Walland has looked poised in the pocket and his decision-making has never been better.

"Coach is very down-to-earth," Walland says, "a very good listener. He places a lot of trust in us." Walland attributes his strong play to Siedlecki's faith in him. Siedlecki has always called the majority of the offense's plays from the sidelines, but in the two games this year, Walland has begun calling more plays in the huddle. "That confidence helps out a great deal. It makes me a lot more comfortable."

Siedlecki has shown a desire to abandon the conservative, predictable tendencies of Carm Cozza's past teams. His teams aren't afraid of taking a first quarter gamble or throwing the ball down the field in short-yardage situations. "There's a new attitude on this offense," Walland says. "Coach loves to throw the ball, which is great for me. We're going to try for more and more big plays, get away from the conservative stuff. It's fun for everybody, the crowd, the players, everybody."

Siedlecki's mild temper and easy-going manner, a huge departure from the "Lombardi-like," intense style of his father, seems to fit well with the team—and with the job. After the one-point loss to Brown, Walland says Siedlecki was calm and collected in the locker room, telling his team that they could only move on. That night after the loss, the Siedleckis—Jack and Nancy—held their traditional barbecue after the season's first home game, hosting 150 Madison neighbors. Certainly, the loss was crushing, but there was the coach, just hours after the loss, mingling, laughing, with friends and family, nearly taking it all in stride. This is, after all, a man who, according to his wife, loves nothing more than a trip to Disneyworld. Siedlecki has taken his family there five times.

A second home

For the Sat., Nov. 13 road game against Princeton, the Bulldogs' last matchup before The Game, a bus full of nearly 50 fans from Johnston will be making the trip. Old friends, high school classmates, former coaches—they'll all be there to see John's son coach against the Tigers.

Siedlecki says he often thinks about Johnston. "I miss the simplicity," he says. "It's a great place to live. It doesn't have all the complexities that other places have. Friday night football is as big as anything else." There is no doubt, though, that Siedlecki feels right at home here at his second home, Yale, just 33 months after being named Yale's 32nd football coach. "Yeah," Nancy says, "I think we're going to be here for a while." And how could they possibly leave? After all, Jack's three kids, Kevin (golf), Jackie (volleyball), and Amy (field hockey and soccer) are making a name for themselves around these parts.

Meanwhile, another football weekend is about to begin for John's kid, the left-hander who laid many a brick in the Johnston High gym, the tailback that survived Ted Jornov. Put on your Yale cap, and remember to turn to page five in the Leader-Herald on Sunday and check out how he did. Photo by John Yi.

Back to Sports...