Jamestown Chiefs president and general manager Joe Scapelitte, who is credited with founding, financing and creating the semi-professional football franchise of the Northeastern Football Alliance, announced his retirement on Monday.
The announcement comes mid-way through the team's first season in the league.
''Joe was planning on retiring anyway,'' Chiefs coach Brendan Carter said. ''He sold his businesses and sold his properties. Joe saw it as a responsibility to see the team up and running.''
Carter indicated Scapelitte's main reason for stepping down at mid-season is due to some health concerns. Scapelitte himself, didn't disagree.
''Shaky health is the main reason,'' Scapelitte said. ''It's a very stressful position being both the president and the general manager. I maybe could have done one or the other, but the board of directors is intact and the foundation is solid.''
See SCAPELITTE, Page C-3
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Scapelitte stressed stepping down doesn't mean he'll be absent from the Chiefs' games during the season.
''I'll be there Saturday with bells on,'' Scapelitte said. ''The time is right. It's OK now to step down, and I wanted to make sure everything was in place, but I don't want to push it.''
Scapelitte is leaving the Chiefs in more than capable hands with a board of directors intact, now spearheaded by Erica Carter and acting general manager Rich Jensen.
Jensen, who was originally hired on staff to be the marketing and public relations director, has been familiarizing himself with the day-to-day operations of the team all season long. Jensen has been essentially preparing himself for the possibility of taking over this position at some point down the road, it just happened a little bit sooner than many expected.
''Interim is usually the word the (National Football League) uses,'' Carter said of Jensen's GM status. ''We will do a reorganization at the end of the year, which we were going to do anyway.''
When the team transitioned from a sole proprietorship to a not-for-profit organization, the board of directors was created. Scapelitte's retirement doesn't surprise team officials, it's simply viewed as part of the team's evolution forward.
Jensen has been working with many of the administrative tasks over the last few weeks, even with Scapelitte still on staff ,to prepare him for next year. Carter stressed that nothing will be announced officially on the reorganized structure until next season.
Along with Jensen, absorbing some of Scapelitte's responsibilities will be vice president Erica Carter, who also happens to be the head coach's wife.
''Her job was to back up Joe,'' Brendan Carter said. ''Now she'll step up a little more to the forefront. Ninety-percent of the job is to shake hands, greet teams coming in and be a figure head to run board meetings.''
It's nothing Erica can't handle.
As for on the field, don't expect to see any changes this season. The Chiefs are still the same team, working hard in practice every week and competing in every game they play on the weekend.
Saturday's game is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Strider Field.
''As of right now, you aren't going to see any new changes until we get through the season,'' Coach Carter said. ''We're learning as we're going, we know we made some mistakes, but it's kind of hard to make some changes mid-stream. We had the board in place from the beginning and the board will be doing more as the season goes on.''
After this Saturday's game against the Lyndonville Tigers, the Chiefs will play host to the Southern Tier Diesel from Olean. In the first meeting between the two squads, the Chiefs handled them easily, with a 37-0 win.
The administration has several special events in store for that weekend as well, with a kids night promotion and a unique halftime show. The Chiefs will be honoring the Jamestown Dukes, which was a semi-professional football team from the 1940s and 1950s. More details on both promotions are still to come.
''This season has gone exactly the way it was supposed to go,'' Scapelitte noted. ''If you look at the record (1-5), we only lost three games by four points. I also want to say thank you to the wonderful community support this year, thank you to the coaches and thank you to the fans.''
