Joseph Cipp Jr, a graduate of Sachem High School (Section XI) received a Bachelor degree from Northeastern University and a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia, is one of the most decorated football coaches in New York State history. Coach Cipp started the Bellport varsity football program from scratch in 1976 and established a career record of 211-87-3, a .708 winning percentage. He led his teams to 10 Suffolk County Championships and five Long Island Championships (est.1992) in addition to having two teams ranked #1 in the state (1982, 2001). Coach Cipp was named New York State Coach of the Year three times, Long Island Coach of the Year five times, and was named New York Jets High School Coach of the Year and MSG Varsity Metro Coach of the year once. He produced 48 All-Long Island players, 17 All-Americans, four New York State Players of the Year and had 42 athletes awarded Division I scholarships. Coach Cipp was given the National Football Foundation Honor Award in 2007, a life time achievement award from the Ultimate Athlete magazine, and has been previously inducted into the Long Island Chapter of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Suffolk County Hall of Fame & Sachem Hall of Fame.  Coach Cipp retired in 2011.

Coincidentally, Cipp has two sons, Joe III, and Jeff who are following the same coaching path. The coaching seeds were planted in the den at the Cipp home on Beaver Dam Road, adjacent to Bellport High School. That’s where Joe Cipp’s two sons not only watched cartoons on TV as kids but also viewed the flickering images of old film every Sunday and learned that part of their father’s success as a high school football coach was built on reviewing game film. Over and over again.

“I remember when he would watch film with his coaches in the den,” said Joe III, 46. “We’d just sit on the floor and hear everybody talking football. Not that we knew what was going on, but being exposed to it and growing up in that kind of environment, the idea of coaching wasn’t scary. It was just what you do.”

Joe III is the older of the football-coaching Cipp brothers. Each earned a No. 1 seed in the 2014 playoffs and was voted Coach of the Year, Joe III for Division II Bellport and Jeff, 42, for Division I Longwood. (read more)