Their ferocity is actually just what lead your so you can St. Dominic. It had been a tiny college, having doing 150 students inside for each class, rather than a traditional energy. Although activities mentor, Tom Capozzoli, had been on St. Dom’s for approximately several many years, and now he had a star athlete-their child Tony, that has obtained the national Punt, Solution & Stop title two years consecutively. The brand new athletic agencies made a decision to draw in members who does let the fresh new Capozzolis earn a tournament just before Tom retired. Hodne are included in this, along with a good teammate throughout the Levittown Reddish Devils travelling group, Dave Smith. Hodne wasn’t actually Catholic. He had been just rangy and you can unlawful, an enthusiastic intimidator.
One to recalls a coach getting discharged shortly after he attempted to alert Hodne’s mothers regarding their son
It absolutely was stored during the Knights out-of Columbus Hall; the newest football players strung around a large round-table, revealing for each other. Hodne wound up doing things they mention even today. He pulled a girl on dance under the table if you find yourself his teammates stayed in the seating-an act you to definitely produced his profile in a few residence, and in find italia women some quarters undid hers. “Becoming most sincere along with you, everyone pointed new digit in the their unique,” claims Marge Galtieri, a good St. Dominic cheerleader and something of Hodne’s friends. “We evaluated their own. But perhaps we evaluated their completely wrong, taking a look at the situations of your own adopting the ages.”
And you can in the past, I got it happening
Hodne is actually of Wantagh, an easily center-category city between the nothing packets away from Levittown as well as the pleasure from Robert Moses’ sight on boardwalk regarding Jones Coastline. He’d an arduous-performing father, an enchanting and stylish mother, and you can siblings having whom he had been personal. He became a pretty much all-Enough time Island linebacker whose very identity rattled opponents. However, even yet in ninth grade, Todd Hodne try an effective polarizing figure from the St. Dominic, since despite ninth degrees, Todd Hodne was talking about breaking the legislation. The guy delivered their knife to college and you may, centered on Poggioli, “definitely” left brand new residence in the fists when he, as the a good freshman, battered an older which confronted your. He and bragged about stealing car stereos and you may doing robberies. Their teammates listened, in addition they had to choose whether or not to trust your and exactly what to do once they performed. Dave Smith is actually brand new son of a beneficial Nassau County police officer, incase these people were the sophomores, the guy told their dad you to Hodne is actually cracking towards man’s houses. Smith’s father contacted Hodne’s local precinct, and therefore examined. The outcome, claims retired officer Don Smith, try one Hodne, during the fifteen, is actually “custodialized” by the juvenile fairness agency from Nassau Condition and you may forced to go back the brand new stereo gadgets he’d stolen. The newest intervention generated long lasting enemies from Hodne and you can Smith, the two into the linebackers with the St. Dominic Bayhawks. But it neither turned-off Hodne neither endangered their position into party.
Quite a few of Hodne’s teammates contemplate Tom Capozzoli a couple of times using up to possess him with college administrators. Ralph Willard, who had been the fresh new sports movie director at the time and you can continued to coach baseball with Rick Pitino from the Louisville, states, “I don’t think about indeed there are one complications with Todd, the truth is. I recently remember just how he strike.”
St. Dominic claimed the state Catholic High school Football Category title from inside the 1975, during the Tom Capozzoli’s last year due to the fact head advisor. His young man Tony, an elderly, is named first-party Parade All the-American, in which he committed to Penn County since the a good quarterback and you can a good kicker. Todd Hodne, Dave Smith and you will John Poggioli got yet another 12 months to each other, and even though Hodne and you can Smith used to have a good fistfight for the university staircase, Hodne and you will Poggioli had been thought to be close friends. In truth, Poggioli said the guy stayed throughout the relationship because the guy didn’t learn how to get away. He had been interested in Todd Hodne and he are afraid of Todd Hodne when you look at the equivalent size, and you can Hodne produced him shell out anytime Poggioli tried to arise out of below his sway. Whenever Poggioli is actually good junior, the guy informed Hodne he you will test into the school play; Hodne answered by the sneering, “You’re no star,” and you can dumping a beneficial pail from drinking water to your his direct. Whenever Poggioli had a break for the an effective girl titled Janet, he wouldn’t challenge query their own aside while the Hodne, even in the event perhaps not their particular boyfriend, had advertised their own. “In my few years at St. Dominic, no body requested myself aside as they were therefore scared of Todd,” Janet Shalley remembers now. “I’m able to only go out boys from other schools. “