Their ferocity try what introduced your to St. Dominic. It had been a little college or university, having as much as 150 students for the per class, and not a classic electricity. However the recreations coach, Tom Capozzoli, was actually from the St. Dom’s for about a dozen age, and from now on he had a star member-their young buck Tony, who’d claimed the national Punt, Pass & Stop championship couple of years in a row. The newest sports agencies decided to bring in professionals that would assist brand new Capozzolis winnings a title before Tom resigned. Hodne is actually among them, as well as good teammate on the Levittown Yellow Devils travelling team, Dave Smith. Hodne wasn’t actually Catholic. He was only rangy and violent, an intimidator.
That remembers a coach being discharged shortly after the guy made an effort to warn Hodne’s parents about their son
It absolutely was held from the Knights away from Columbus Hallway; the newest football participants installed around a large round-table, showing for every single almost every other. Hodne wound up doing things they speak about even today. He pulled a girl at dancing under-the-table while you are their teammates stayed in their chair-an act one to made his character in a number of house, as well as in specific home undid hers. “Getting very truthful with you, everyone directed the new fist at their particular,” claims Marge Galtieri, an effective St. Dominic cheerleader and one off Hodne’s classmates. “We judged their own. But possibly i judged their unique wrong, looking at the incidents of your own following many years.”
And you will back then, I got they going on
Hodne is from Wantagh, an easily center-group town amongst the little packets regarding Levittown and fulfillment out of Robert Moses’ attention in the boardwalk out of Jones Coastline. He previously a painful-functioning dad, a charming and elegant mom, and you will sisters which have just who he was romantic. The guy became a practically all-Much time Isle linebacker whoever very identity rattled opponents. However, even yet in ninth degrees, Todd Hodne is a great polarizing figure in the St. Dominic, as the in ninth degree, Todd Hodne is actually talking about damaging the law. The guy lead his knife to school and you can, considering Poggioli, “definitely” left the newest household in the fists when he, because a great freshman, battered a senior exactly who confronted your. He and bragged regarding the taking car stereos and you may doing burglaries. His teammates listened, and so they had to choose whether or not to faith your and you can what to accomplish when they performed. Dave Smith are the latest young man away from good Nassau Condition police, of course, if they were every sophomores, he told his dad you to Hodne is actually breaking to the mans home. Smith’s father contacted Hodne’s local precinct, and that examined. The result, claims resigned administrator Don Smith, is one Hodne, within 15, is “custodialized” of the juvenile justice agency male order brides Sado off Nassau County and you can forced to go back the fresh music gadgets he’d stolen. The latest intervention generated long lasting opposition out of Hodne and you may Smith, the 2 inside linebackers into the St. Dominic Bayhawks. Nevertheless none turned-off Hodne neither endangered their condition into the group.
A lot of Hodne’s teammates consider Tom Capozzoli many times taking on getting him having university administrators. Ralph Willard, who had been the athletic director at the time and you may continued to coach basketball having Rick Pitino during the Louisville, says, “I do not think about indeed there getting any complications with Todd, the thing is. I simply consider just how the guy strike.”
St. Dominic won the official Catholic High school Football Group championship in 1975, during the Tom Capozzoli’s final seasons because the direct coach. Their young buck Tony, a senior, is named earliest-party Procession Every-American, and he invested in Penn County since the a great quarterback and a kicker. Todd Hodne, Dave Smith and you will John Poggioli had an added seasons together, and although Hodne and you may Smith used to have a good fistfight to the college or university stairs, Hodne and you may Poggioli was basically recognized as best friends. In reality, Poggioli said he remained in the relationship just like the the guy did not know ways to get away. He was keen on Todd Hodne in which he try scared of Todd Hodne from inside the equal scale, and you can Hodne produced your spend each and every time Poggioli made an effort to arise of less than their swing. When Poggioli was an effective junior, the guy informed Hodne which he might try out towards the college play; Hodne replied from the sneering, “You may be zero star,” and you can dumping a great pail out-of drinking water on his lead. When Poggioli had an excellent break towards a girl named Janet, he would not dare query their particular away because Hodne, whether or not perhaps not her boyfriend, got advertised their own. “In my own four years within St. Dominic, not one person expected myself aside because they was so afraid of Todd,” Janet Shalley remembers now. “I am able to simply go out boys from other universities. “