Winter Takes Toll on High School Basketball Coaching Staffs

HYANNIS – In what can only be deemed a successful winter campaign for many Cape Cod high school basketball teams, the turnover has been considerable in recent weeks and, not insignificantly, in most if not all cases, midstream.

The latest development came yesterday when Barnstable High School boys’ basketball head coach Chuck Kipnes confirmed that he had stepped down and resigned his position after two

Barnstable High School boys' basketball head coach Chuck Kipnes confirmed yesterday afternoon that he had resigned his position once the season ended early last week. Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports

Barnstable High School boys’ basketball head coach Chuck Kipnes confirmed yesterday afternoon that he had resigned his position once the season ended early last week.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports

seasons and a fair modicum of success. Kipnes’ record was 21-21 and included a pair of trips to the MIAA Division 1 South Sectionals and this season, a co-championship in the three-team Old Colony League.

He was the 18th boys’ basketball head coach since the program’s inception in 1925 as an officially recognized varsity sport at Barnstable High School.

“Coming up through the ranks of youth basketball, to the jayvee team to be given the opportunity to coach the varsity squad at a Division 1 high school was the apex of where I wanted to go with coaching,” Kipnes said. “I enjoyed every minute of it.”

Kipnes, a Worcester native, had the opportunity to be on former head coach Gerry McDowell’s staff and see his own son – Class of 2013’s Jake Kipnes — grow to become a Red Raider basketball captain under McDowell.

An accountant by trade, Kipnes said that the post-January tax season each year is extraordinarily time-consuming for him and he felt the added strain of that burden this winter when various family members took ill and he was called upon to add responsibility for their care to his already maxed-out schedule.

Ultimately, he said, when this year’s team reached the 6-6 win-loss mark in mid-January he sat down with school officials and advised he would not be returning after this season.

“It ran its course for me,” Kipnes said. “I can rest easy knowing I gave the job everything I had but I will miss the kids.”

Earlier this winter, Sturgis East girls basketball coach Ted Pappas stepped aside from his post after discussions with athletic director Patrick O’Kane following a game on the road at Falmouth Academy. News of Pappas’ departure made some of the local newspapers, and in some reports it was stated that Pappas had familial obligations he needed to shift his personal focus on. He was replaced by varsity assistant coach Nick Conti in an interim capacity and Conti finished out the season with the team.

“He (O’Kane) asked me to stay on and help out but I really couldn’t do that,” Pappas said a little over a week after he stepped aside. “But I never resigned.”

Three weeks ago, in the midst of another highly successful campaign as head coach of the Upper Cape Tech girls’ basketball team, Robin Davidson was replaced by athletic director Mike Herndon.

Calls to Herndon’s office were not returned seeking comment regarding the mid-season replacement of the successful coach.

— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm

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