Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010

By Dave Solomon, Register Sports Columnist

dsolomon@newhavenregister.com

NEW HAVEN — A few months back, as 58-year-old Jack Siedlecki awaited an early retirement package from Yale — which officially kicks in Saturday — his wife Nancy would occasionally quiz him about the rest of his life.

As in, “Are you really not going to work?”

Perhaps having Jack underfoot 24/7 was a little chilling, considering that for the better part of the past three decades, as a football coach in various locales, Siedlecki would work 75 hours on a good week.

Yet the thought of honing his golf game at the Madison Country Club seemed appealing to Siedlecki, even if Nancy and their three children knew he wasn’t built to go cold turkey on a lifetime of living and breathing football.

Then came a series of events that began innocently with a call from Wesleyan athletic director John Biddiscombe, asking Siedlecki to help the Middletown university rebuild a football program that had fallen on hard times.

“There were a couple of people involved in the search (for a new head football coach) that were friends of mine and I joked, ‘if the right guy gets the job, I could possibly end up here.’ ”

There was probably a subliminal hint in there somewhere, but when one of those close friends — Williams coach Mike Whalen — was wooed back to his alma mater on April 1, it was good news for Nancy and not so good news for Siedlecki’s golf handicap.

“It’s an ideal coaching job at this stage of my career,” said Siedlecki, the new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks/receivers coach at Wesleyan, roughly 16 months after resigning as the second winningest coach in Yale football history to Carm Cozza. “It’s Division III, it’s a really idyllic place, and it’s going to be a big challenge. They haven’t won the Little Three (Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyan) in 40 years.

“As you walk into the athletic building, there are these really big portraits of (famous coaching alums, Bill) Belichick and (Eric) Mangini. I said to Mike, if you win the Little Three, they’re going to put a stature of you between the two of them.”

Siedlecki, an athletic department administrator at Yale during the past year, didn’t retire with an eye toward eventually getting back on the sideline. He wanted to go out on his own terms and genuinely thought he was done coaching. But as his consultation with Wesleyan escalated into the possibility of a return to coaching, the question from his wife kept playing in his head.

“I’ve lived with the game of football my entire life,” said Siedlecki. “My dad was a coach, and aside from my two-year hiatus in the real world when I graduated from (Union College), it’s what I’ve done my whole life. I did it for 33 years and I still love the game ... it’s some of the other things that kind of pound on you a little bit.”

With the luxury of extra time to actually talk football and visit colleagues — instead of having to put out brush fires or tend to the many ancillary functions of a head coach — Siedlecki has already embraced the opportunity to do things he might not have been able to do as head coach for 21 years (12 at Yale).

Having never coached the quarterbacks and receivers specifically, Siedlecki spent a day with UMass head coach Kevin Morris — who Siedlecki hired on his first staff at Worcester Poly — and sat in on his quarterback meeting. He has a day planned in May with former Yale offensive coordinator Joel Lamb, to talk about the quarterbacks and receivers, and he spent a day at Georgetown with former Yale assistant Matt Dence, to talk about coaching receivers.

“One of the things I’ve always loved about football was going to visit people ... to talk to people about what they do ... little nuances or innovations to try to put in every year,” said Siedlecki. “And there wasn’t as much time (as head coach) as I would have liked.”

There was an excitement in Siedlecki’s voice, that a slice into the woods, or even an occasional birdie could never provide.

Interestingly enough, Siedlecki’s impact on the new staff has resulted in three other hires with Yale connections, including former Yale superstar Bobby Abare. Abare, at Wagner last season, will coach the defensive line and pursue a graduate degree at Wesleyan. One of Siedlecki’s former assistants at Yale, Jeff McDonald, will serve as recruiting coordinator/linebackers coach and Tyler Wells, a reserve DB who graduated from Yale in 2005, will coach the running backs.

As Siedlecki began talking about the offensive philosophy he brings to Wesleyan, it was if he was plotting out strategy months before he officially takes over as offensive coordinator (July 1).

“Once a coach, always a coach, I guess,” he said.

Nancy Siedlecki can rest easier. Her husband is back where he belongs.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/04/29/sports/ssolomon042910042910.txt

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1331261&forum_id=1#15179180)