EAST SYRACUSE – Kevin DeParde arrived at East Syracuse Minoa High School as a young man, then spent more than half his life shaping a once-downtrodden football program into an annual contender.
Now that task is done as DeParde announced this week that he is stepping down as varsity head coach after 25 seasons in that role and 31 years overall with ESM.
DeParde said that he had grown weary of the year-long demands the varsity head coaching job required, leading to physical and mental exhaustion and a desire to have more family time in the years ahead.
Late in the 1990s, the Spartans spent most of its time looking up at its Class A rivals, but all of that changed once DeParde and his staff started to implement their comprehensive plan.
What followed was 136 victories in 227 games, a stark contrast to the 34-67 record the Spartans put up before DeParde’s arrival.
Eleven different times, ESM recorded regular-season league titles, and it reached the Section III Class A final four times, claiming the sectional championship in 2006 and 2011 followed by runner-up finishes in 2014 and 2015.
But DeParde’s impact and work went far beyond his own team. He rose to the position of executive director of the New York State High School Football Coaches’ Association and has served for years on the section’s football committee.
ESM also became one of the most important venues for area football, too, from having sectional and regional finals at Spartan Stadium to spring clinics conducted by the region’s chapter of the National Football Foundation to hosting the section’s annual Media Day in August.
DeParde is one of many top area coaches who are leaving their posts this fall, joined in football by Liverpool’s Dave Mancuso, in girls volleyball by Baldwinsville’s Mary Jo Cerqua and, in boys soccer, Fayetteville-Manlius’ Jeff Hammond and Skaneateles’ Aaron Moss.
