Joseph Chiappetta

For close to 20 years, Joseph Chiappetta of Sutton Group – Staus Realty in Oshawa, Ont. has spent several hours per week coaching young soccer players on the attitudes and skills that make lifelong memories: a game-changing save, a ‘bicycle kick’ goal, a Beckham-style arching pass. With spring just around the corner, Chiappetta is gearing up for another busy season. He has certification as a Level 3 National Coach and experience training international-level teams so he is often in demand. In 2010, he sponsored and helped to coach Team Sutton, a group of 13- and 14-year-old boys in a park league. In 2010, he also took on the new challenge of learning and teaching lacrosse.  

“I am first generation Italian; my parents immigrated from Italy in the early 1950s,” says Chiappetta. “I was raised on soccer from birth. As a teenager, I was an avid player in Toronto.”

He took on a new athletic challenge last year when his son’s lacrosse team needed a coach. “Although I enjoy watching lacrosse, I had no idea as to rules of the game or any drills needed for the team’s development. As players get older, they can always tell if a coach has a real understanding of the game. The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint the players, so I hit the books to learn the rules. With help from a couple of teenage lacrosse players along with a retired professional player who kindly lent his time to run a lacrosse clinic with my team, we attacked the year with enthusiasm,” he says.

The strategy paid off. His son’s team, the Knighthawks, won the Gaels Clarington Minor Lacrosse House league championship for their age group.