There is this picture. It is on the wall of his den. Joe Cipp is kneeling on one knee. His hair is longer and he is younger. He is, of course, holding a football. His older son, Joseph, is to his right. To his left is his younger son, Jeff -- a little kid, wearing these plaid pants that only a mother could love. Around it are all these other pictures. Pictures of Joe Cipp on the sideline of Joe Cipp Field in Bellport. Pictures of his best players from his best teams over the years. Pictures of Joe Cipp being presented with a championship trophy. Pictures of his two sons. Two sons who are, of course, playing football. All of them are older now. Joe Cipp Jr. is 48. Joe Cipp III -- his father still calls him Joseph -- is 27. Jeff Cipp is 22.

But, in all that time, football has never left them. Joseph went to Ithaca, won two NCAA national championship rings in Division III -- one as a player, another as an assistant coach. Jeff went to Kentucky, then Maine, where he assisted with spring football before his graduation in May. This season, all three will roam the sidelines in Suffolk.

Joe Cipp Jr. returns for his 18th season at Bellport after a three-year sabbatical that saw him hand over the program to longtime assistant Roy Still, become the school athletic director and still spend most of it on the sideline with Still. Meanwhile, Joseph leaves Bellport after three seasons as an assistant to Still -- Still called him "Sonny" -- to become the head coach at Longwood, replacing Kevin McCarthy, who became an assistant principal at the school.

Jeff, who, like Joseph, is a teacher in the Longwood school district, joins the staff at Bellport and will coach linebackers, as well as centers, guards and long-snappers. "You know how when coaches are coaching they always tell you, 'Family first,' " said Joe Cipp Jr., whose wife, Laura, is a scientist at the University Medical Center at SUNY-Stony Brook. "Well, it doesn't always happen that way. You know, when you are a head football coach -- or an involved football coach -- your family doesn't come first all the time. Sometimes, it comes second. And that can make it very tough on the family. I remember my wife telling me not to bring it home. Because when they started playing, I'd be coaching them at the table, so they never got a break. I think that was the best advice I ever got. They didn't come to hate it."

"I can't remember a time when I ever said I didn't want to do this," Joseph Cipp said. "It's what I grew up with. And when I was finished as a player in college, there was this emptiness. As a player, you sweat, bleed and work real hard so you can play on Saturdays. When that was gone, there was this tremendous void. Coaching filled that void." As Jeff Cipp said: "I just enjoy football. I guess I always wanted to be a coach. I love the game."

It is a love each of them understand. "The first year I was athletic director," Joe Cipp said, "I wore a shirt and tie to school. The second year, I felt so torn I decided I needed to be a volunteer coach -- so I could be out there. I didn't wear a shirt and tie. Now, I feel like myself again."

The elder Cipp, who will be replaced as athletic director by Mike Brown, whom he replaced in 1993, first came to love football as a player at Sachem. Kerry Lawler was his coach. Lawler, who died of cancer in 1991, six months after being named Newsday Suffolk Coach of the Year at Bayport-Blue Point, was a wonderful, insightful and caring man -- if not as good with X's and O's. He taught his players to love life. And, football. Cipp took that to heart.

After Sachem, he went to Northeastern, where he was an inside linebacker. But, when his playing days were done, Cipp said he missed the game. So he decided to become a coach, and was offered the position of graduate assistant at the University of Virginia in 1971. It was there he met Roy Still.

After Virginia, Cipp wanted to become a head coach. He also wanted a family and did not want to travel. He decided the place for him was high school football. For two seasons, he was an assistant at Bayport under Lawler, then for a season at Sayville.

When Bellport started a program in 1975, Cipp was hired -- only to find himself in a battle with members of the community, who were divided over the need for a football team, and with his own athletic director, who found Cipp stubborn and abrasive. Some claimed he was a media hound. Some claimed his teams reflected his abrasive style. But no one could deny he cared. Or, was good.

Cipp led Bellport from 0-9 in its first varsity season in 1976 to a league championship in 1980. And, seven years after that first game, Cipp guided the Clippers to the Suffolk County championship. His teams won league titles seven times, won county titles in 1982, 1989, 1991 and 1992. They won the inaugural Long Island Class II Championship in 1992.

Bellport won the title again last season under Still, who will be an assistant this season. Cipp coached 12 high school All-Americas, guided Bellport into the national rankings, produced 22 All-Long Island players and three winners of the Hansen Award, given to the outstanding player in Suffolk each year. And never failed to let anyone know it.

"I have rough edges," he said. "I'm honest, I say what I think. But I can't help it if some other coaches don't care about their players as much as I do." To that end, Joseph Cipp is his father's son -- as Jeff is sure to be, too.

Joseph is a bit more refined, but every bit as honest. And demanding. Having won the national championship as a player at Ithaca in 1988 and an assistant with the Bombers in 1991, Joseph came home, took a coaching position at Bellport and married his longtime girlfriend, Sue. She had been the valedictorian at Bellport, where she captained the volleyball and soccer teams.

   "She has more varsity letters than I do," Joseph said -- and then an honors student at Cornell. The two have an infant son, Connor. And, when McCarthy, who had played for Joe Cipp back when Cipp was at Sayville, was offered a position as an assistant principal at Longwood, he recommended Joseph Cipp as the new coach.

   "Back in 1992, when I was appointed here," McCarthy said, "the first guy I asked to come in and talk was Joe Cipp. We had pizza and soda in the cafeteria. Joe came over in a suit and tie and spoke to the kids and the coaches about what it takes to build a winning program. My goal, in fact, was to turn Longwood into a bigger Bellport. I tried to instill the same sense of pride. We even use the same terms, 'Pride, Spirit, Heart.' So, when it came time to get someone in here to replace me, I knew that I wanted to get a young guy who would come in and continue that work ethic, who could relate to the kids, who grew up in that environment. Who didn't know any better than working his butt off. Hiring [Joseph] was a no-brainer."

   As McCarthy said of Joseph Cipp: "He's a student of the game. He's got the same commitment to excellence [as his father]. He'll work and work. And, work. I hear him yell sometimes out on the field and it's like I'm having flashbacks."

   Joseph Cipp already has compiled a list of Longwood's accomplishments: from the 7-3 record and a berth in the Suffolk Division I Championship Game in 1992, the first winning season in school history, to the county championship, Hansen Award winner Jason Schuster and the Rutgers Trophy in 1993. He even has traded in all his red shirts and shorts -- Bellport red -- for the green of Longwood. But, when Joseph Cipp mentions Longwood has been in the county championship game three times in four seasons, his father is quick to mention: "Bellport has been in it five times in seven."

   "I always considered having a father who was a coach to be to my advantage," Joseph said. "He always worked me harder, always pushed me harder -- and, that made me a better player. It made me tougher. See, there is no substitute for hard work. That was one of the biggest things my father taught me. You can be good. You can have talent. But you can't get anywhere without hard work."

   What happens next remains to be seen. But it is obvious that Joe Cipp, Joseph and even Jeff are looking forward to this season. "My house, when we win, we have big parties," Joe Cipp said. "Now, with the two of us running programs, we'll have even bigger parties." And, Sunday afternoon they'll all sit down in the family room at the Cipp house -- the one just past the den -- and critique films. Football films from Bellport. And, football films from Longwood.

Newsday, 09-15-1996