Coach Anthony Nicodemo, middle, goes over the goals of the first practice with the men's basketball team at Saunders Trades and Technical High School in Yonkers, N.Y., last month. Timothy Bella for Al Jazeera America

YONKERS, N.Y. — Anthony Nicodemo is peeved. The head coach of the boys’ basketball team at Saunders Trades and Technical High School can’t believe what he’s just heard inside the school’s run-down weight room.

“A 67 in U.S. history?” he says. “I hate it when someone is failing history. I teach history.”

Nicodemo walks into the locker room, where a player is eating a slice of pizza. It’s the last thing the coach wants to see members of his team eating 12 minutes before practice. He’s still peeved: “Find a way to eat something else.”

It’s the first official practice day of the season for Nicodemo’s Blue Devils, and he’s all business. “We don’t have a lot of time,” he tells the players as they head to the court. “No B.S. Let’s get out there and get it done.”

Nicodemo, 35, is a 17-year veteran of coaching. He’s bald with a beard and has an intense but supportive manner. Yet in one important way, he’s not like most coaches. This summer, Nicodemo told his players something about himself that he’s kept private for 15 years: He is gay.

Nicodemo is believed to be the first openly gay boys’ high-school basketball coach in the New York City metropolitan area and is one of just a handful of gay high-school coaches who’ve gone public with their sexual orientation.

His first season since coming out tips off Saturday. School administrators, parents and students have been supportive of his announcement. Nationally, however, gay high-school coaches have met mixed reactions. Some have lost their jobs, subsequently accusing their schools of firing them for their sexual orientation. Coaches and administrators interviewed for this article say there’s growing acceptance among students but that school administrators and parents often remain uncomfortable with the idea of an openly gay coach working with adolescents.

“The climate is all over the place,” says Vikki Krane, director of women’s studies at Bowling Green University and co-author of a 2005 study on the impact of sexual orientation on amateur coaching. “There are places where openly gay and lesbian coaches are completely supported and places where they’re scared to death to lose their jobs.”