Independent person

FILE PHOTO Vito Capizzo If you are a man of a "certain" age who grew up on Nantucket, chances are you played Whaler football under Coach Vito Capizzo and chances are, if you had a son, he played Whaler football under Coach Capizzo, too. Thousands of young men went through the program and learned the valuable lessons of teamwork, hard work and good sportsmanship.

Capizzo coached the Whalers for 45 years, resigning last spring. He saw the football program through 293 wins and nine trips to the Division 5 Super Bowl, winning three of those games.

This fall Nantucket young men continued playing football without two traditions: The Whalers did not play Martha's Vineyard for the Island Cup, and more importantly, Coach Cappizo was not on the field sporting his familiar cap, carrying a clipboard and smoking a pipe.

Capizzo was not content to just coach football. He saw that the sports program needed support when he first came here, and he created the Boosters Club in 1965. When he saw that Nantucket needed a real league to participate in, he helped create the Mayflower League in 1969.

Despite the disappointing 2008 season and the dwindling numbers of football players due to increased competition from other sports, Capizzo sees a future for football.

"It was time to move out of the way," he said. "Any new coach has to develop a relationship with the kids and should be in the system to do that. They have to trust you and you in turn need to earn their respect." I