James Codispoti '63, an outstanding basketball player and track and field star while at Cortland, led his powerhouse Mamaroneck High golf teams to a 234-103-8 record during his three decades as head coach.
A Bolivar, N.Y., native, Codispoti was Student Council president, All-Alleghany County in football and basketball, the Section Five pole champion and record holder, and a National Honor Society member while at Bolivar Central School. At Cortland, Codispoti scored 41 points against Alfred University as a freshman basketball player. He later co-captained the varsity squad to the SUNYAC Championship and received that sport's Red Letter. He captured four letters as a pole vaulter and javelin thrower for the Red Dragon track and field team, which won the New York State title his junior year. A Beta Phi Epsilon member and a two-year residence hall counselor, Codispoti received the 1961 Whitney T. Corey Scholarship.
After graduation, he attended the University of Maryland on a graduate assistantship and earned his master's degree there in 1965. A year earlier, Codispoti joined Mamaroneck Public Schools as a physical education teacher and coach. He remained there for the next 37 years, 34 of those in the senior high school. As the golf coach from 1971-2001, he guided six All-State golfers, five of which turned professional. His teams won six league championships. He was voted Westchester County Golf Coaches' Coach of the Year in 1990 and served as the New York State Section One Golf Coordinator in 1999-2001.
Codispoti also directed the Mamaroneck boys' basketball team from 1968-93. He received the first Frank Demaio Memorial Sportsmanship Award in 1987 from the Westchester County Basketball Coaches Association. His 1975-76 squad went 17-3 and the New York Daily News voted Codispoti its 1976 Westchester Basketball Coach of the Year. In 1975, he developed the Physical Education Master Plan. During the 1980's, he served on the Mamaroneck High Physical Education Program Committee that established the innovative and respected Athletic-Option and Outside Agency Program.
A certified New York State Special Olympics Coach, Codispoti was a track and field volunteer/assistant throughout the 1970's. An active Cortland Alumni Association member, Codispoti was the 1993 Rye Golf Club senior champion.
He and his wife, Lois Kornrumpf Codispoti '64, have three children: Tim, Tom and Lisa.
UPDATE- March, 2015: Codispoti volunteers at the registration table to assist at The NYSAHPERD Annual Conventions.
