Northbridge coach Ken Lachapelle and New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli accomplished a rare feat for football coaches on Friday night.
Both won their 400th game.
When NEFJ told both coaches that they had each won their 400th game, the first thing each of them said was, “Please congratulate coach for me.”
It speaks to the kind of people Coach Lachapelle and Coach Marinelli are. It’s why they have lasted so long and why they have had so much success.
This type of success and longevity ultimately come down to two things: the kids and the people they have surrounded themselves with through the years.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate to be at a small high school in Central Mass., and I talk about having a pretty good Northbridge High School football player,” said Lachapelle. “Our goal is not to turn every player into a Division 1 player. Our goal is make the experience as good as possible for every single one of them.”
Coach Marinelli echoed Coach Lachapelle’s sentiment when it comes to the kids and what type of player they want to coach at their respective schools.
“Our kids are great. I cannot say enough about our kids and our community,” Marinelli said. “They work hard every day. They play in a tough league. I am very pleased to be in one place. The hardest thing to put together is a team. I have had kids go one to play Division 1, but when the kids take ownership of the team, then you really have something special.”
Both Lachapelle and Marinelli entered coaching at a young age. They both started as assistants and graduated to the head job. The two men took different paths to becoming head coaches.
Marinelli started off as an assistant at Boston College under the legendary Joe Yukica. He also coached under Ed Chlebek for one season. After the Eagles went 0-11, Marinelli decided to return to high school coaching. He became the head coach at New Canaan in 1981. The program had lost 30 straight games when he inherited it. Since then, he has won 14 state championships at the school.
Lachapelle took a different path, starting off as a high school assistant before becoming the head coach at Northbridge in 1976. Lachapelle built the Rams into a powerhouse, winning 9 Super Bowls between 1981 to 2015. Northbridge has made 16 Super Bowl appearances in his tenure. Lachappelle has done it a little different than most. While everyone was running the Wing-T, double wing and the I-formation, Lachapelle decided he was going to throw the ball.
“Ever since I started my career, my philosophy is throw, throw, throw.” said Lachapelle. “My philosophy has always been sideline to sideline, goal line to goal line. That’s my playing field. I’ve never been a good coach 11 on 11. I am at my best when it is 3-on-2 or 2-on-3.”
Scheme aside, a common thread between the two coaches is who they have surrounded themselves with. Both acknowledge one key to longevity is surrounding yourself with good coaches but more importantly, good people.
“I have been fortunate to have consistency in coaching. A lot of the kids that played for me now coach for me,” said Lachapelle. “I have great assistant coaches who have probably carried me the past 10 years. They do great things for me.”
Marinelli says that it takes a great staff and a supportive administration too.
“When you are doing something that you love and you are at a great place, the town is supportive, the administration is supportive and I have a great staff where a lot of the guys that have played for me, have come back and coached. It really is an ideal situation.”
Getting to 400 wins is rare, partly because it requires two things that are aren’t guaranteed when you take over a program: success and longevity. Both acknowledged that the only way you can last this long is by winning and doing right by your players.
“It’s hard to be at one place and maintain a quality program.” said Marinelli. He added: “Winning is important but it also the affect that you have on kids. You have more of an impact on high school kids and that’s what helps you last.”
Ultimately, you have to win to last as long as he has.
“You can’t last long at this without a modicum of winning,” added Lachapelle. “I don’t care what level you are, losing takes its toll on you and you take it personal.”
For both coaches, the long-term impact on their players is what means the most to them.
Lachapelle has coached his three sons and five grandsons. His grandson Joel is a junior and currently the team’s starting quarterback.
“When it all adds up, it’s family. So many of the kids on my teams started as water boys and next thing you know, here we are,” he said.
Marinelli says seeing the players come back and being successful in life makes it all worth it.
“When kids come back from the eighties and you see how successful they are, not that it was totally you but you had a little piece of that success of your former players, that’s special.”
Lachapelle and Marinelli are special coaches and that’s the reason they have been able to last 49 and 43 years respectively. It’s why they have built two programs that have been able to sustain success, but more importantly, produce good people.
Other than coaching teams nicknamed the Rams, the two men probably do not share much else in common. The two things they do share in common is demanding their players work hard and being good, contributing members of society. It may seem simplistic, but those two principles are at the core of both of their philosophies.
It’s the main reason they’ve impacted countless young men throughout their careers and why they still continue to have a major impact on so many lives.