Milford Academy: The Sparta of football

NEW BERLIN — In ancient Greece, Sparta was known for the citizens’ focus on military training and excellence. Male Spartans began their military training at age seven when they entered the educational system, which emphasized discipline, weapons training, and physical stamina, along with philosophy and logic. The boys lived in communal settings away from their parents where there were no distractions. Each Sparta boy was assigned an older male, who served as a mentor, role model, and father figure. At age 20, these Spartans joined a club to learn how to bond and rely on each other.

The program
Fast forward 2,500 years to Milford Academy nestled in New Berlin, a village of approximately 1,200 residents. “We often [are] called the ‘Sparta of Football,’ ” says Hubert (Buff) Bowen, the academy’s offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. “Our mission is to help high-school seniors and post-graduate, student athletes who need more education and/or more athletic guidance. Milford runs a 17-week program that begins early in August and concludes the first week in December. While the school receives more than 1,000 applications annually, we limit the number of students to around 60, so that each one gets personal attention. All are good athletes, but some need to improve their academic records to meet NCAA eligibility rules for college acceptance while others score well academically but come from areas that are not heavily recruited” by college coaches.

Bowen then describes the daily regimen. “The boys are up at 6 a.m. and spend the first half-hour in the weight room,” he says. “They then have breakfast before attending classes. The curriculum includes six classes daily with a break for lunch and a free period during the day for tutoring. Football practice, which begins promptly at 3 p.m., runs until 5 p.m., when everyone returns to the main building to clean up and have dinner. The evening meal is followed by a study hall for those who need it and football meetings with the coaches. At 10 p.m., everyone gets one hour of personal time with lights out at 11. The dress code requires all students to wear a shirt, tie, jacket, slacks, and shoes. Attendance at all classes and meals is mandatory.”

“For most of our students, Milford is a culture shock,” declares William Chaplick, the academy’s head coach and director of operations. “This is not a military generation, and the … [applicants] are not used to regimentation. Our job is to turn them into great football players who, when they enter a college program, are prepared for the rigor. The school is not a military academy, but we take aspects of the military to teach our students to be responsible for their actions, to appreciate the need for teamwork in order to accomplish a collective goal, respect authority, be on time, and exercise self-discipline. These are not only traits that will serve them well in football, but also in their careers and in life.”

Started as a Connecticut prep school
Milford was not always known as a “football factory.” The brothers Rosenbaum, Sam and Harris, who were both civil engineers, launched the concept of a preparatory school in Connecticut in the first decade of the 1900s when they began tutoring some of the star Yale University athletes who were not destined to be Rhodes scholars. In 1908, they opened the Rosenbaum Tutoring School. The idea of a prep school named eponymously after the founders followed in 1916, and in 1920 the name was changed to the Milford School, a recognition of the Connecticut city in which the school was established. After Sam Rosenbaum’s death, his brother renamed the institution Milford Preparatory School for Boys. In 1964, at the time of Harris Rosenbaum’s retirement, the family converted the school’s status from a for-profit corporation to a not-for-profit corporation.

Milford began to lose its prestige as a prep school in the mid-1970s when the public demand withered. The board of directors then changed the model to preparing student athletes in multiple sports, including football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. The investment to convert the program required Milford to take on significant debt. With students now attending only part of the year, the school sustained operating losses. 

“When I joined Milford in 1999 as a coach,” recalls Chaplick, “the school was deep in debt and the facilities were in disrepair. The only way to pay off the debt was to sell the buildings and property; there was no other option. In 2001, the board appointed me to head the academy with the goal of saving the school, paying off our obligations, and reopening in a new location. I chose to drop the baseball and hockey programs, because I am a football guy. New Berlin’s location so far from most of the basketball opponents would require a travel schedule where the teams would be on the road all the time, so it didn’t make any sense to continue this program” either.

“In December 2002 upon my recommendation, the board of directors decided to close the school, so that I could concentrate on finding a new location and have the time to make any needed renovations to the newly purchased building and grounds,” Chaplick explains. “The next year, we sold the entire Connecticut campus to the City of Milford for $2.5 million, allowing us to pay off the accumulated debt. I then took off the next year to focus on finding a new home. At the same time, I maintained a website and an office while staying in touch with college recruiters. My initial idea was to find a site in Pennsylvania, because it’s a popular area for Division-1 recruiting.” 

The New Berlin opportunity popped up when the school district opened a new high school and decided to sell off the old building built in 1936, along with the playing fields. “This location is perfect,” stresses Chaplick. “When I first saw the school sitting up on a hill overlooking the village, I thought it looked like a citadel. The three-story high school has 86,000 square feet divided into classrooms and offices and is situated on 10 acres which include practice fields. The purchase price was $100,000, but the renovations required to bring the building up to code cost substantially more. I organized a group of investors to buy the property and the building. We now also have a 5,500-square-foot fitness room and two houses. The school, which is close to the center of town, struck me as pristine and quaint, just like a New England village. I also liked the rural setting without the distractions of Connecticut where, for $11, the students could sneak out after curfew and hop a train to New York City.” In contrast, New Berlin is almost 200 miles from New York City.

Business model
Milford Academy’s business model is based on one revenue stream — tuition. The 2016 academic year currently has a roster of 57 enrollees. “The school has no endowment to support operations,” says Bowen, “and we’re not eligible for any government aid. The current tuition cost is $21,695 for the 17-week program. The cost is borne by the students or their parents, who may turn to finance companies such as Your Tuition Solution.” (The company offers loans up to $50,000 to K-12 students nationwide.) To be successful, Coach Chaplick recruits 15 hours a day, 364 days a year. “The draw is our reputation, where 98 percent of our graduates go on to colleges, and two-thirds receive full scholarships. That can be a $250,000 value. In fact, 60 percent of our graduates, who finish the program in December, enter college the following month and, according to NCAA rules, have 5.5 years of eligibility to play four years of football. Not only can they earn a bachelor’s degree, but some earn master’s degrees. At the end of the Milford program, the academy holds a spring and fall practice to showcase the kids. Typically, 60 to 80 college coaches, who have already reviewed candidates’ credentials, attend to watch the scrimmages and confirm their decisions. It’s not unusual for our graduates to get a scholarship offer the day of the practice, because the coaches know the candidates have been thoroughly vetted.” Chaplick says the school’s annual operating budget is about $1 million.

Competition
“There are scores of [secondary and post-secondary] schools that … [purport] to prepare their students for college football, but Milford is in a league of its own,” contends Chaplick. “The only real competition we have now is from Fork Union [Military Academy] located in Virginia. They have a great program, but the military … [environment] just doesn’t appeal to a lot of kids in this generation. (According to the school’s website, Fork Union’s student body is organized into battalions, companies, and platoons led by cadet officers.) Milford Academy has a great reputation, which helps to attract the best players. I also know and stay in contact with college coaches, something I have done since 1980. But the proof is in the pudding. Every day here at the school, the students see our hall of fame, displaying the graduates who have gone on to Division-1 schools such as Syracuse, Louisville, Miami, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan State. They also see former graduates who played professional football for the Bills, Eagles, Titans, Panthers, Rams, Vikings, Jets, and Redskins. When we recruit a student to attend Milford, there’s no whipped cream — no fluff or public-relations spin. Our website certainly isn’t fancy, but it does one thing very well: It shows our success over the years. We invest our money in the program and then highlight our accomplishments.”

Coach backgrounds & the future
Chaplick, 59 — a native of Ansonia, Connecticut — earned a full football scholarship to Boston College where he was a three-year letterman and an All East, All-ECAC center. He graduated in 1980 with a major in sociology. A neck injury sustained at college prevented him from playing professional football with the New York Giants. Chaplick went into business for the next 15 years, opening a bar in Boston on Beacon Street, a restaurant, and then a real-estate company, before he got the itch to coach. Chaplick coached first at Ansonia High School in 1993 and then at Woodstock Union High School (Vermont) beginning in 1994. He joined Milford in 1999, expecting to stay a couple of years. His football-coaching record at Milford through 2015 includes 145 wins and 44 losses. Chaplick resides in New Berlin and is the father of three grown children.

Bowen, a Milford alumnus of 1974, played college football at Mesa College in Colorado. He has coached quarterbacks for the past 26 years and in 2006 co-founded the Elite Passing Academy with his son Evan. For the past 35 years, Bowen has been an entrepreneur, starting and selling an international computer business. His latest creation is the Boomja Marketplace, which provides free listings for thousands of unique products in more than 700 product categories. Boomja organizes the storefronts to increase visibility and traffic for innovative and unusual products that may be difficult to find on the Internet. Bowen works with his wife Karen at the new company, which the couple launched in 2016. The two live in New Berlin. Bowen has coached at Milford for the past six years.

Chaplick has no plans to retire. “I’m not a retirement kind of guy,” he avers. “My mission is to get to kids and make their lives better. From my own experience, I know that football doesn’t last forever and I also know just how fast a football career can disappear. The program at Milford helps to steer our student athletes in the right direction … We’ve built the academy’s reputation; now we need to maintain it.”

The Sparta of football may not exactly resemble the Sparta of ancient Greece. The students are not preparing for warfare, they don’t carry shields, logic and philosophy are not part of the curriculum, and they certainly don’t exhibit their athletic prowess in the nude. The similarities to Sparta, however, are striking, beginning with the need for discipline, a standard of excellence, and physical stamina. The students live in a communal setting removed from all distractions and surrounded by role models and mentors. The environment is designed not only to improve each student’s personal abilities but also to encourage relying on others. Sparta’s reputation as a fighting force was unequalled in its time. Chaplick’s mission is to sustain the Milford Academy reputation, which has changed the lives of thousands of athletes for the better. He is determined to make its reputation for developing great football players unequalled in this time.

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com