PREP SPORTS

Ciao Returning To Sidelines Where He Belongs

By KATHERINE SMITH The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 24, 2007

TAMPA - In the five years since he last coached a football game, Dominick Ciao found various ways to occupy his time.

He was a sales consultant for an artificial turf company and provided a variety of services for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a defensive assistant. But these tasks were just things to do to bide his time.

More than anything, Ciao longed to be back in a locker room, back on the sidelines, mostly just back around the players. Berkeley Prep provided that outlet when they hired Ciao as their new head coach in March.

From 1986 to 2002, Ciao led the Jesuit Tigers football program. It was there that his reputation began to grow. And it was there that he fueled his passion for football and its players.

"It's what I've always wanted to do," Ciao said. "I went to school to be a teacher and a coach. That's what I am. I'm not capable of doing anything else."

Tonight, Berkeley travels to Northside Christian for a Kickoff Classic. Ciao, the winningest football coach in Hillsborough County in the 1990s, will try to bring his winning ways to a program that went 1-8 last season.

"Coach Ciao being back on the sidelines is as it should be," Plant coach Robert Weiner said. "It wasn't high school football in Hillsborough County without him there."

Before the Berkeley opportunity, Ciao got his football fix by serving as a part-time assistant with the Bucs. It was one of the ways he remained close to the game.

Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin brought Ciao on board.

Kiffin first met Ciao when he arrived in Tampa with Tony Dungy in 1996. Kiffin's youngest son, Chris, was entering the ninth grade and needed a place to play football.

"Everybody told me if I wanted him to play for a great coach, then he should play for Coach Ciao at Jesuit High School," Kiffin said. "I didn't know Dominick Ciao from Tom Osborne."

He soon learned of Ciao's legend, and his effect on kids. Kiffin used to stand in the back of the locker room after his son's game and listen to Ciao.

"I would watch him and the way he talked to the team," Kiffin said. "Those players would do anything for him. Berkeley Prep, they're very, very lucky to have him there. He was one of the most popular guys in our building.

"He's just one of those guys. If you don't like Dominick Ciao, you don't like people."

Because of his popularity and consistently successful football programs, Ciao became the face of Jesuit. During his 17 seasons as the Tigers' coach, he compiled a 137-60 record. In his final 11 seasons, he led the Tigers to the playoffs 10 times, including a state runner-up finish in 1992.

And then, suddenly, he was gone.

Ciao cited "more time with his family" as the reason for his decision to step down as Jesuit's coach after the 2002 season, a season in which the Tigers made it to the state semifinals. There were rumblings, however, that the decision wasn't entirely Ciao's.

Ciao refuses to bad-mouth the Jesuit administration that basically forced him out, but Kiffin questioned the motives behind his departure.

"I definitely was surprised when it happened," Kiffin said. "And I think it's taken Dom a little while to recover from it. With all due respect to the coaches there now, Dominick Ciao was special to Jesuit. He did a lot there.

"I didn't like the whole way that came down, but it's Berkeley's gain now."

Ciao inherited a team that features only five seniors. That hasn't deterred Ciao from demanding greatness and enforcing a strict work ethic.

"He's a really solid coach," Berkeley quarterback Archie Barnes said. "He built his trust with us immediately. As soon as he got out to spring practice and he started us off, we knew it was going to be tough, we were going to work hard and then we would have success."

With Ciao, though, the game of football is more than X's and O's. It's more than wins and losses.

"Everybody that steps in the locker room at Berkeley, whether they're first team, second team or third team, they're going to graduate and look back on their years with Dom and think, 'Wow, I learned a lot about life,'" Kiffin said.

"He'll teach them about being a person, not just a blocker or how to tackle. They'll learn what it takes to grow up to be a good person."

That's not to say Ciao doesn't know how to produce great athletes. Ciao helped more than 100 players get college scholarships at Jesuit. He also has an impressive coaching tree that includes Weiner, a former Jesuit assistant who led Plant to a state title last year, and former Tigers quarterback George Godsey, now the quarterbacks coach for the University of Central Florida.

"There's no question that anything I do at Plant is directly descended from everything that he taught me," Weiner said. "He taught me everything that I know about being a football coach and, really, about being a man.

"Any sidelines in high school football aren't the same unless he's stalking them. He's back where he belongs."

Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860 or ksmith@tampatrib.com.