Durango High School softball will turn to its former coach’s right-hand man to take the reins.
Mike Cioppa recently was hired as the new skipper of the DHS softball program, taking over for John Bernazzani, who stepped aside in January after five years at the helm.
Cioppa inherits a program that went to its first-ever Class 4A postseason in 2011, finishing 12-8. The Demons narrowly missed out on a return trip to the postseason this year, finishing 9-10.
Last year, Cioppa was in charge of the junior varsity squad at DHS and had been a varsity assistant at DHS for two years and is a former assistant at Fort Lewis College.
For the new bench boss, stepping up in an expanded role was just the undertaking he was looking for.
“It’s just a new challenge. I really respect the girls I’m working with,” Cioppa said. “They’re hard workers, they’re really good people and a tremendous example of what Durango’s all about.”
Cioppa’s spent the summer working with the Durango Danger youth program and the high school kids, spending time at practice and at games, which were played primarily in Farmington. What stood out to him was the sheer numbers of kids out playing at the high-school age level.
“This summer, we’ve had tremendous turnout at the high school for practices and just finished league games down in Farmington, and I was really impressed with the numbers that came out,” he said. “We’d go down a lot of times with 16 players.”
Before his time in Durango, Cioppa spent 34 years at Danbury High School in Danbury, Conn., where he taught physical education and served as a coach for the softball, baseball, football and girls basketball teams.
Cioppa is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and received a master’s degree at Western Connecticut State University.
He was chosen from a field of three that also included Michael Lady and Joe Vidunas.
Cioppa worked closely with Bernazzani during his time as an assistant, and as far as coaching philosophy goes, don’t expect a sea change.
“I think that John always stressed fundamentals and a positive attitude, and that’s what I’m going to do as well,” Cioppa said.
“We have to be very sound in what we do, and the youth program is doing a very good job, but we’re still behind some of the teams in our conference and what they do.”
And expect Cioppa to continue pushing for what was a labor of love for Bernazzani – the field behind the high school. The Demons have practiced there the last two seasons but still are trying to finish up dugouts and procure a scoreboard in order to play games at the facility instead of trucking up to FLC to play at Aspen Field.
“I think the goal of the program is to have a scoreboard, dugouts and a field that stands by itself just like baseball has, and I think the girls deserve that,” Cioppa said.
rowens@durangoherald.com
