Pollizatto ready to take on new role as head coach of Schenectady football team

As the season is just around the corner, Pollizatto is gearing up to kick off his 26th year at the Schenectady City School District, this time in a new role — as the head varsity football coach.

“The dream of becoming a head football coach has always been in my heart,” said Pollizatto, who also works as a global history teacher and head coach of the Schenectady/Mohonasen girls’ lacrosse team. “I’ve tried my luck at several places over the years. With the experience I’ve gained from running the girls’ program and initiating the first-ever youth girls’ lacrosse program in Schenectady and Mohonasen, I believe there’s no better time than now to step into this role.”

Pollizatto, who was appointed to the position by Schenectady’s Board of Education on March 20, takes the reins from Carmen DePoalo, a well-known figure for his nearly three decades of service as a business agent for the IUE-CWA Local 301 in Schenectady and his contributions to the area’s youth football programs.

Pollizatto has been an assistant coach at Schenectady for the past six seasons under DePoalo, but his coaching journey began in 1995 at Bethlehem High School, after wrapping up his playing career at UAlbany.

“I was no superstar by any means. I was a walk-on,” Pollizatto said of his UAlbany football career, where he played as a tight end from 1992-1994. “But if I hadn’t played, I would have never met Coach Ford.”

It was Bob Ford, UAlbany’s legendary football head coach, who Pollizatto credits with igniting his passion for coaching.

After launching his football coaching career at Bethlehem, Pollizatto returned to school to earn a master’s degree in education, and eventually started his career at the Schenectady City School District in 1999.

Over the years, he has coached football at Albany, Schenectady, Niskayuna, Schalmont and Mohonasen. As head coaches changed, so did Pollizatto’s opportunities to coach, as he primarily served as a defensive assistant.

Besides his football and lacrosse coaching duties, Pollizatto also coached junior varsity girls’ basketball for 17 years, at both Schenectady and Mohonasen.

“Seeing him on the sidelines in the fall, and then this past spring with girls’ lacrosse, just the way he connects with kids, it’s clear the kids love playing for him,” Schenectady athletic director Edgar Glascott said of the decision to appoint Pollizatto to lead the football program.

“In a few weeks, we hit the ground running,” said Pollizatto, with Schenectady set to face Scotia-Glenville in a Week 0 scrimmage on Aug. 31.

Once appointed, Pollizatto’s primary focus was to ensure players attend offseason workouts, and to foster a sense of camaraderie among them.

“As soon as my lacrosse season ended, the message was ‘hit the weight room, hit the weight room, hit the weight room’,” he said. “We conducted a mini football camp in June and in July we’ve continued with the weight room.”

On Aug. 5, Schenectady kicked off its summer football camp at the high school, and on Thursday visited Scotia-Glenville for a joint practice session. The Patriots begin official team practices next Monday.

Leading up to the season, Glascott was impressed by the number of students requesting to use the school’s facilities over the summer.

“I have kids asking me, ‘Mr. G, can we get on the turf today,’” Glascott said. “The kids have really embraced Keith already and they’re excited. It’s wonderful, from my perspective, seeing their passion and their desire to improve.

“I was [always told] that the kids can’t get back to the school to come back to the weight room. I’ve noticed, since we hired Keith, the kids are making it to the weight room. So, they’re finding rides, finding ways to get here. To me, that just shows their dedication, not just to him, but to themselves to get better for the upcoming season.”

Pollizatto estimated that between the modified, junior varsity and varsity levels, approximately 30-40 student-athletes have regularly attend evening weight room sessions at the high school during the week, while many others attend sporadically throughout the morning and afternoon.

A certified teacher for grades 7 through 12, Pollizatto credits his ability to motivate students to being in the high school during the school day.

“The kids see me on a daily basis. I was in the middle school for 16 years and now I’m up in the high school,” said Pollizatto. “Being a stable figure, an individual that’s regularly there for them, that helps me with building relationships in any sport that I coach in the building.”

This has been especially important, supporters say, in light of the district’s chronic struggles with poor student attendance and low test scores.

While a key part of offseason workouts and early-season practices is simply getting players to show up, the next challenge is how players interact with one another, and how they push each other.

Jevin Moore, Schenectady’s only returning varsity captain from the 2023 season, is a player Pollizatto is going to rely on quite a bit.

However, being the program’s only captain — for the time being — will also be a learning experience for Moore.

“It’s definitely new to me, taking on the role of being a big brother to my younger teammates,” he said. “Now that I’m taking that on, it’s important for me to know what I’m doing, and know how I’m speaking to everyone in a positive way.”

“Before, I had other captains who were older than me,” Moore said. “When I was a younger captain, it was a little different. I’m by myself right now, which makes it a little tougher.”

Still, Moore is on the same page with his coaches, as they attempt to change the culture of the program. While running sprints towards the end of practice, Moore does all he can to keep his teammates moving.

“We’re talking about changing the culture for Schenectady, and that’s where it starts — little stuff like that leads to change,” said Moore, who explained what ‘changing the culture’ means to him. “It means, not to be disrespectful to each other, not to be bad-mouthing anyone or saying you’re better than anyone. It means staying humble and letting your game talk.”

If players form a tighter bond early in the season, they are less likely to give up should the season get tough, especially in a tough Section 2 Class AA division. At least, that’s what Pollizatto is hoping.

“The whole thing is to change the culture, to get the kids out here to support each other,” Pollizatto said. “I remember Coach Ford, he would tell us every year, I can’t promise you a championship, but I will promise you that from where we start to where we finish, we will get better.”

Some of the changes he’s looking to make is to have more coaches at the lower levels of the football program, so a small junior varsity or modified coaching staff isn’t overwhelmed with a large group of players.

In recent seasons, Schenectady has struggled in the win column, going 2-7 overall last year and 0-9 in 2022. The last time the Patriots finished with a winning record was in 2019, when they were 6-3 overall, but didn’t quite make the playoffs.

“We had some players, and we had numbers. People were excited about playing,” Pollizatto said of 2019, a year he was an assistant coach. “At the end of the season, we weren’t dealing with people quitting, that team stuck together. I know Carm [DePoalo] definitely tried to build off of that, but then COVID hit and that handicapped us a lot.”

But, according to Pollizatto, not having an ideal number of coaches at the lower levels of the program contributed to players not being as prepared for varsity as they should have been.

“That’s been one of the issues in not taking off since the 2019 season, is a lack of coaching that we’ve had [at the younger levels],” he said. “That was one of my goals, to have three solid [junior varsity] coaches, so they’re not struggling.”

“The biggest thing is continually trying to provide a positive culture,” he added. “For it to be a place where any athlete can feel safe, enjoy themselves and see positive results — whether that be academically, behaviorally, their character or in the win-loss column.”

When the 2024 season takes off, the Patriots will certainly have their hands full. In addition to having to deal with programs like Christian Brothers Academy, Shenendehowa and Saratoga Springs, they will also have to face next-door rival Niskayuna. The Silver Warriors, the two-time defending Section 2 Class A champions, were bumped up to Class AA this season.

The newly appointed head coach will have a bit more time on his hands than he did in the past, however. A father of two, Pollizatto will be sending off his youngest to start his freshman year at the University of Buffalo this summer. Aiden Pollizatto recently graduated from Mohonasen, where he played basketball. Pollizatto’s daughter, Alexandria, is headed into her senior year at Ithaca College. During her high school days, Alexandria played for her father on the merged Schenectady/Mohonasen girls’ lacrosse team.

A native of Levittown, New York, on Long Island, Pollizatto played high school football at Island Trees High School. Now 53, he and his wife, Jill, have been married over 20 years.

“She is my biggest supporter through all my years of coaching,” Pollizatto said of his wife.

Following a Week 0 scrimmage at Scotia-Glenville on Aug. 31 at 10 a.m. Schenectady will have its first regular season contest on Friday, Sept. 6, at home against Albany at 6 p.m.