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The former Leto coach with two state titles has quickly turned his first-year team into a winner after a rough start to the season.
By MIKE READLING, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 26, 2002
TAMPA -- Alonso's soccer season started out just as everyone expected -- a 4-0 loss to Wharton in which the Ravens missed two penalty kicks and the Wildcats buried two of their own.
Two more losses, albeit close ones, and the whispers from fans about a winless season began to grow louder.
It was time for drastic actions. And if there's one head coach who knows how to shake things up, it's Ray DiPompo.
DiPompo sat five starters on the bench for the first half of his team's fourth game against Chamberlain.
His decision was the result of a number of things, DiPompo said, including missed practices and poor behavior during workouts. It was also intended to get the attention of a first-year team composed mainly of freshmen and sophomores.
The Ravens responded by coming back from a 3-1 deficit with 12 minutes remaining to make history with a 4-3 win. With one fell swoop of discipline, DiPompo instilled confidence in his Ravens. "The hardest part was, I guess, making them belive they can play with the quality teams we have around here," DiPompo said. "Against Chamberlain, the switch kind of turned on. Something clicked on there. (As for the benchings) I honestly didn't care if we went 0-15. We were going to do things the right way."
When Alonso slipped in its next game, losing to King, DiPompo felt his stomach churn again.
"After that loss to King, we were like, "Oh no, here we go,"' DiPompo said. "But then we beat Plant 4-1 when they were undefeated at the time. Our kids played great that game. Then we beat Jefferson to get our first shutout to go to 3-4. Now we beat Leto and we're .500 and it's fun all of a sudden. Then, with less than a minute to go, we tied it up against Durant and go on to win in penalty kicks."
Just like that, Alonso was 5-4 and no longer a team opponents looked forward to playing. After coaching at Leto for 20 years and leading the Falcons to two state titles, DiPompo retired in 1996 after suffering a heart attack. During his years on the sidelines, DiPompo was known as a hard-nosed coach whose teams played the same way. Legendary stories surround the coach. One even says while at Leto, he lined up close to 100 players at the season's first tryout, walked the line and dismissed for good anyone who dared show up in sneakers or with white cleats. His teams inherit his aggressiveness, and the Ravens are no different.
With players such as Ivan Sarti, the lone junior in the starting lineup, and Joey Foxenberger, the third and last Foxenberger brother to grace a DiPompo roster (following in the footsteps of Matt and Jeff), the Ravens are a feisty bunch on offense and defense.
"It's tough, we were thrown in with the big boys," DiPompo said, referring to his district that includes King, Plant and Sickles among others. "We're just trying to do some things, build an attack as a team and defend as a team. This was a baby team that started running before it could crawl."
And best of all, said DiPompo: "They're all coming back next year."