I was hoping we could go another week before spilling the beans. What I have known all year and been following for 20 years.
There is no magic button just pages from CK play book and the best part has been watching our local athletes execute the plays over the years. Papa Drass has touched a lot of lives and what he has created and achieved is a gift and the best is yet to come.
I personally hope we get another shot at Larry and Vince out there in Alliance, Ohio.
November 25, 2015
SMYRNA, Del. - The Wesley College football team has been a winning program for a long time under Head Coach Mike Drass. Drass has led the Wolverines to over 200 wins, but some of his most important victories have come off the field, shaping the lives of young men that play for him.
One of the young men that Drass coached at Wesley has translated his on-field successes and off-field lessons into a winning program of his own. Mike Judy ('01) played for the Wolverines from 1997-2000 as an offensive lineman and is now the head coach at local Smyrna High School, just up the road from Wesley College. The Wesley alum claims that a lot of his football knowledge and football philosophies came from his time as a Wolverine.
"Coach Drass had a huge influence on me not just from a football perspective, but from a life perspective," said Judy, who has coached up the Smyrna squad from a 2-8 squad in 2013 when he arrived, to a 9-1 regular season record and the Henlopen Conference Championship. "He does so much behind the scenes for his players. He reaches out to his former guys and never forgets a face. And of course his record speaks for itself."
Judy was named Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year this season, and has developed a program at Smyrna High School that seems to mirror the one he played in as a college student-athlete. He has made it a point to instill the same philosophies on his high school student-athletes that were drilled into his head by the Wesley College coaching staff.
"Coach Drass, Coach Knapp, and [former offensive line] Coach Mangano completely changed me as a player and a person. I gained confidence, they built me up," said Judy. "Any former Wesley players know and understand that Coach bases his program on philosophies that you can hang your hat on. Be it football or the business world, those lessons are the ones that stick."
One of the philosophies of the Wesley program that Judy has adapted for his team at Smyrna is the concept of "Together." Coach Drass and the Wolverines always end practice by breaking out in the chant, "Together," and as a coach Mike Judy has taken a similar approach to his program.
"We break everything on 'Family,' which is really rooted in Coach's message of playing together and being a family and being brothers on and off the field. You play for eachother," said Coach Judy.
The philosophy of "Family," has certainly caught on at Smyrna as the Eagles have had a ground-breaking season, finishing the regular season as Henlopen Champions with a 9-1 record. The Eagles then went on to beat Mount Pleasant in the first round of the DIAA Division I State Football Tournament.
The Smyrna High School Football coaching staff is littered with Wesley grads and former Wolverine student-athletes or coaches. Coach Judy says that the most important thing that he's done at Smyrna was to surround himself with people on his staff who knew what it takes to play at the collegiate level.
"Four or five of my coaches are all Wesley graduates or have coached under Drass at Wesley. We feed off each other when it comes to laying the ground work for the philosophy of this program," said the Smyrna head coach. "We try to set expectations very high at practice and in the offseason and in the classroom. We hold our kids to those expectations. If a 16 or 17-year old boy can respond to that, which my athletes have, great things are going to happen. That bottom line philosophy comes from Wesley Football."
Mike Judy claimed that his time on the Wesley campus away from football was also vital to his development as a student and as a person. "It was the perfect small-school environment. It's exactly what I wanted and what I needed. Professors were great; stern, but flexible and held high expectations," said Judy. "All of those things shaped me into what I have become: a hard-worker, truthful. When I talk to my players it's a conversation, not a dictation. I model my relationship with my players after the relationships I formed at Wesley."
The Smyrna head coach said he often reminisces about his time at Wesley, and can hear his former coaches in his own practice routines. "It's uncanny the things that come out of my mouth. Sometimes I'm thinking, 'I can't believe I said that. That's Drass.' Or 'That's Knapp.'"
He sounds like his old coaches, and he prepares like his old coaches. Mike Judy and the Smyrna Eagles have seen their success continue because of all the work they put in. "I seriously doubt that any high school football program in the state works harder than us. And that's a credit to the kids, the staff, and to the philosophy we've adopted."
A Wesley philosophy.
There is no magic button just pages from CK play book and the best part has been watching our local athletes execute the plays over the years. Papa Drass has touched a lot of lives and what he has created and achieved is a gift and the best is yet to come.
I personally hope we get another shot at Larry and Vince out there in Alliance, Ohio.
November 25, 2015
SMYRNA, Del. - The Wesley College football team has been a winning program for a long time under Head Coach Mike Drass. Drass has led the Wolverines to over 200 wins, but some of his most important victories have come off the field, shaping the lives of young men that play for him.
One of the young men that Drass coached at Wesley has translated his on-field successes and off-field lessons into a winning program of his own. Mike Judy ('01) played for the Wolverines from 1997-2000 as an offensive lineman and is now the head coach at local Smyrna High School, just up the road from Wesley College. The Wesley alum claims that a lot of his football knowledge and football philosophies came from his time as a Wolverine.
"Coach Drass had a huge influence on me not just from a football perspective, but from a life perspective," said Judy, who has coached up the Smyrna squad from a 2-8 squad in 2013 when he arrived, to a 9-1 regular season record and the Henlopen Conference Championship. "He does so much behind the scenes for his players. He reaches out to his former guys and never forgets a face. And of course his record speaks for itself."
Judy was named Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year this season, and has developed a program at Smyrna High School that seems to mirror the one he played in as a college student-athlete. He has made it a point to instill the same philosophies on his high school student-athletes that were drilled into his head by the Wesley College coaching staff.
"Coach Drass, Coach Knapp, and [former offensive line] Coach Mangano completely changed me as a player and a person. I gained confidence, they built me up," said Judy. "Any former Wesley players know and understand that Coach bases his program on philosophies that you can hang your hat on. Be it football or the business world, those lessons are the ones that stick."
One of the philosophies of the Wesley program that Judy has adapted for his team at Smyrna is the concept of "Together." Coach Drass and the Wolverines always end practice by breaking out in the chant, "Together," and as a coach Mike Judy has taken a similar approach to his program.
"We break everything on 'Family,' which is really rooted in Coach's message of playing together and being a family and being brothers on and off the field. You play for eachother," said Coach Judy.
The philosophy of "Family," has certainly caught on at Smyrna as the Eagles have had a ground-breaking season, finishing the regular season as Henlopen Champions with a 9-1 record. The Eagles then went on to beat Mount Pleasant in the first round of the DIAA Division I State Football Tournament.
The Smyrna High School Football coaching staff is littered with Wesley grads and former Wolverine student-athletes or coaches. Coach Judy says that the most important thing that he's done at Smyrna was to surround himself with people on his staff who knew what it takes to play at the collegiate level.
"Four or five of my coaches are all Wesley graduates or have coached under Drass at Wesley. We feed off each other when it comes to laying the ground work for the philosophy of this program," said the Smyrna head coach. "We try to set expectations very high at practice and in the offseason and in the classroom. We hold our kids to those expectations. If a 16 or 17-year old boy can respond to that, which my athletes have, great things are going to happen. That bottom line philosophy comes from Wesley Football."
Mike Judy claimed that his time on the Wesley campus away from football was also vital to his development as a student and as a person. "It was the perfect small-school environment. It's exactly what I wanted and what I needed. Professors were great; stern, but flexible and held high expectations," said Judy. "All of those things shaped me into what I have become: a hard-worker, truthful. When I talk to my players it's a conversation, not a dictation. I model my relationship with my players after the relationships I formed at Wesley."
The Smyrna head coach said he often reminisces about his time at Wesley, and can hear his former coaches in his own practice routines. "It's uncanny the things that come out of my mouth. Sometimes I'm thinking, 'I can't believe I said that. That's Drass.' Or 'That's Knapp.'"
He sounds like his old coaches, and he prepares like his old coaches. Mike Judy and the Smyrna Eagles have seen their success continue because of all the work they put in. "I seriously doubt that any high school football program in the state works harder than us. And that's a credit to the kids, the staff, and to the philosophy we've adopted."
A Wesley philosophy.
