There are only a handful of coaches in the New York state who can boast a legacy as impactful as Mamaroneck’s Mike Chiapparelli.
On Friday, Jan. 13, Chiapparelli’s hockey team picked up a 2-1 win over Webster-Schroeder, marking the 1,000th career win for the longtime two-sport coach who has put Mamaroneck’s hockey and baseball programs on the map over the last three decades.
Chiapparelli, 61, who was inducted into the Westchester Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, became the first two-sport coach in Section I history to reach the 1,000-win milestone, having amassed—as of press time—451 wins on the ice and another 551 on the baseball field.
“I had a lot of good leaders ahead of me and great assistant coaches,” Chiapparelli told the Review. “And if I see something that works, like a drill, I’m going to put it in my program, I’m not shy about that.”
When Chiapparelli took over as Mamaroneck’s varsity baseball coach 32 years ago, he said he didn’t even dream his tenure would be marked by as many wins as it has been.
“I would have to say that I knew I loved doing it but I didn’t know that I would enjoy as much as I have successwise,” he said. “The biggest thing for me, over the years, was probably learning how to start to keep my emotions inside, and I got smarter in my game management and learning how to prepare for a season.”
Of course, he added, it helps to have talent, and Chiapparelli’s work with the community’s youth programs has helped bolster the talent on the varsity level immensely.
“I always say you have to have the horses in order to win,” he said. “And I made a good decision over 25 years ago to get involved with the Little League board and the MYHA (Mamaroneck Youth Hockey Association).”
And although Mamaroneck has been a perennial powerhouse for much of Chiapparelli’s tenure, perhaps no time has been quite as fertile as the last few years. His baseball teams won state titles in 2008, 2009 and 2015, and last winter, his Tigers became the first-ever Westchester program to skate away with a state title in hockey.
Over the last four years, Chiapparelli’s two teams teams have gone a combined 83-9-1, and with six more wins on the ice this winter, the Mamaroneck coach will overtake Suffern’s John Orlando for the most hockey wins in Section I history.
And at 14-0-1 on the year so far, Chiapparelli’s skaters just might be up to the challenge.
“We’re going to try to do what we’ve done all year, and it starts with the defense,” he said. “We’ve given up 15 goals in 15 games and the offense has done enough to allow us to come away with the wins.”
