Jim Corpora has had more than his share of exciting moments on the field as a football official.
The Easton High School and Kutztown University graduate worked at least a dozen postseason games while an Atlantic Coast Conference official, including the first to work three league championship games. He officiated more than 200 ACC games and was the side judge in the 2011 Alamo Bowl, the 67-56 Baylor win over Washington that set a record for points in a bowl game.
But Corpora has a new job that has him nearly as excited as anything he was assigned to on the field.
On Oct. 1, Corpora began a new job as the playoff officials assignor for NCAA Division III football. He will assign all NCAA Division III tournament games starting in November.
“That’s my primary duty,” he said. “But I will also be on the NCAA rules committee, which is something I’ve always relished doing. It’s a great opportunity. I’m looking forward to that. With that, I will be going to a three-day meeting in Dallas each January and attend the Alonzo Stagg Bowl, which is the Division III national championship game on Jan. 4 in Canton, Ohio. And then each year in June, I will go to the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, and I will run the meeting for all of the Division III supervisors of officials.”
Corpora said the Division III tournament now features 40 teams, including 28 that receive automatic bids by winning their respective conferences.
In evaluating officials, Corpora said it’s no longer necessary to see games in person.
“All of the games are available on internet platforms,” he said. “When the playoffs begin, I will also assign people that I know well from the ACC or the NFL to evaluate the playoff and then decide this crew is going to go on and this crew isn’t, and those kinds of things. There was one game last year at Susquehanna that turned out to be a horrific, poorly officiated game to the point that it made national news. The NCAA got a lot of negative comments for feedback. As it turned out, four of the seven officials who worked that game had never met their supervisor, so the old good ol’ boy network of assigning officials — as I said in my interview — has got to go. All you’re doing is shaming the game.”
Corpora, who is the National Football Foundation СŷƵ Chapter’s Hall of Fame and in the СŷƵ Softball Hall of Fame, said the priority is to keep integrity in all levels of officiating.
“That’s my goal, that’s my approach to it on a nationwide basis,” he said. “What it comes down to is education, which frankly, is sorely lacking at a lot of places around the country, especially at the high school level and in some cases at the college level. Because of the shortage of officials and some other factors, it has become like ‘Should I go to work at Walmart to become an official?’ People get moved up, and sometimes they get moved up too soon for a variety of factors, and the overall quality is less than what it should be. Not to be redundant, but in my interview, I said that we have to have higher standards. We’ve gotten away from that and have, instead, lowered the standards.”
Corpora, who began officiating while in college in 1977 and spent 44 years on the field, said there are 240 Division III football teams spread among 28 conferences.
“Division III football has become a big thing for a lot of schools because some of them are getting upward of 140 kids in camp, and it’s big revenue,” Corpora said. “That’s what people don’t understand. In many cases, football is keeping schools alive when you consider kids are paying $65,000 a year to go there. And that’s why the NCAA expanded the Division III playoffs from 32 to 40 teams, so more schools have an opportunity, and we’re seeing a lot of teams changing conferences to better position themselves for either an automatic bid or an at-large bid. So, with so much at stake, the officiating must be the best it can be, and it’s my job to help ensure we have the best officials out there for the biggest games.”
Dieruff Hall of Fame selections
Dieruff has announced three individuals will be inducted into its athletic Hall of Fame on Dec. 20 between games of a girl-boy doubleheader against Allen at Dick Schmidt Gym.
The individuals are Ron Berta, Rich Sniscak and Buddy Maxwell.
Berta is a 1964 graduate who was a three-sport athlete playing baseball, basketball and football. He was all-conference in baseball and football as a junior. He attended Moravian College where he continued his baseball and football careers.
He was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics in the ninth round of the 1968 MLB draft. He became Girard College’s baseball coach from 1970-74 and was a Dieruff assistant from 2013-18.
Sniscak, a member of the class of 1980, was a three-sport athlete, participating in baseball, basketball and football. He was a first-team defensive back in football and a first-team outfielder in baseball. He attended The Citadel, where he continued his football career.
He was Dieruff’s baseball coach from 1987-89, posting a 53-19 record and leading the team to the District 11 title in 1987 and the district and East Penn Conference crowns in 1988.
He went on to lead Allen football to a District 11 title in 1992 and then was a championship coach at Parkland before becoming that school’s athletic director, principal and district superintendent.
Maxwell, a member of the class of 1988, was a three-sport athlete, participating in baseball, football and wrestling.
He was an all-EPC outfielder in baseball and an all-EPC wrestler in 1988. He was the first Dieruff wrestler to achieve 100 career wins and was a regional champ in 1988 and a state quarterfinalist in 1987 and ’88.
He later became a Dieruff assistant for several years.
New coach at ACCHS
Jeff Appleman has been chosen as Allentown Central Catholic’s new softball coach. He succeeds Bill Milisits, who led the program for five seasons and won 28 games. The Vikettes were 6-14 last season.
Appleman previously coached at Salisbury for six seasons, where the Falcons were 66-47 and reached two league and one district finals. Four of his players finished with more than 100 hits, and several went on to college careers, including Lilia Crouthamel, who played at Penn State. He resigned after the 2021 season.
