SKANEATELES – Under Joe Sindoni’s guidance for most of the last decade, the Skaneateles football team reached glorious heights while also finding itself mired in controversy.
This ended on Tuesday when Sindoni submitted his resignation, just three days after the Lakers’ season ended with a defeat to Chenango Forks in the Class C regional final.
In his resignation letter sent out to players, parents and boosters, Sindoni said that family concerns were his primary reason for leaving, as his oldest children are now in high school and he wants to see them take part in their various activities, including sports.
He also had specific praise for his 2021 team, and what it had gone through, on and off the field.
“These boys battled through unprecedented distractions and unsettled times to focus on coming together as a team,” wrote Sindoni. “They succeeded…and they showed their character and what great young men they were.”
Exactly one year earlier, past and present Skaneateles players gathered at Hyatt Stadium on Thanksgiving for a “Turkey Bowl”, despite the fact that the gathering was not allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions that were in place at the time.
Though Sindoni only had a small role in the event, the Skaneateles Board of Education voted not to renew Sindoni’s contract, causing a community firestorm and leading Sindoni to go to court to get back his job.
Onondaga County Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri ruled for a temporary injunction, and the school board relented as Sindoni coached both in the spring and again in the fall, where the Lakers earned the Section III Class C championship.
In two separate tenures, Sindoni’s teams went 59-14 overall, earning four sectional titles and peaking with the program’s first-ever state championship, earned in Class C in 2017 before returning to the state semifinals in Class B a year later.
“What I will miss the most…is the time our teams would be at practice, in the team room, in the weight room or anywhere else we would get a chance to talk, goof off or just spend time together,” said Sindoni. “We have been so blessed with the great young men we have the privilege to coach here.”