Rich Scarcella: Alvernia hires Delaware State assistant Steve Azzanesi as its new football coach [updated]

Jan. 24—Steve Azzanesi found contentment in his 18 seasons as an assistant football coach at Wesley College.

The Wolverines averaged 10 victories a year, won nine conference titles and reached the NCAA Division III playoffs 14 times, including 13 straight appearances.

His proven track record and infectious enthusiasm, among other factors, convinced Alvernia University to hire the 44-year-old Azzenesi as its new football coach.

He was introduced Monday as the second coach in the program's brief history. He's replacing Ralph Clark, the Golden Wolves' first coach who went 3-30 in three-plus seasons.

"I can't tell you how excited I am about the opportunity to develop young men and work with them to be the best version of themselves," Azzanesi said. "I'm just happy and blessed for that opportunity. I can't wait to get started."

A high school standout at St. Elizabeth in Wilmington, Del., he played football at Wesley and faced Alvernia in baseball when the two schools were members of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference.

Azzanesi spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Delaware State, which plays in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and is a member of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

The Hornets went 2-3 against a modified schedule last spring and 5-6 in the fall for their first five-win season since 2013. Under Azzanesi's guidance, their offense ranked second in the MEAC in scoring and third in pass efficiency and rushing.

"There are a few things I believe in," Azzanesi said. "Taking care of the football, executing at a high level and giving unbelievable effort."

He graduated in 2000 from Wesley, where he played for and worked with head coach Mike Drass and assistant coach Chip Knapp. They built the Wolverines into one of the top Division III programs in the country, going 180-42 in Azzanesi's time on the staff and reaching the NCAA semifinals six times.

"Coach Drass was my guy," Azzanesi said. "He was a Delaware County guy. It was an environment you didn't want to leave. He developed young men. He cared about his players. He cared about his coaches.

"I was looking for the right spot, and Alvernia is the right spot."

Alvernia athletic director Bill Stiles said Azzanesi's experience as a teacher and an administrator, his relationships with his players and his recruiting success convinced the search committee he was the right man for the job.

"Steve talked about love and trust being foundations of a program," Stiles said, "in terms of building relationships with student-athletes. I think that is something that is so critical to us.

"We were also looking for somebody with a proven track record in recruiting. That is what jumped out to me as one of his strengths: his energy, his enthusiasm, his extensive network in our geographic markets. One of his references described him as a recruiting machine."

Azzanesi said the recruiting area within 2.5 hours of Reading is one of the most fertile in the country. Only two players on the Alvernia roster are from Delaware. That number figures to increase with his ties to his home state.

"It (his expected recruiting base) starts with Berks County and goes out from there," he said. "Southeastern Pennsylvania is a hotbed. I've recruited New Jersey for 18 years and there's a lot of talent there. We had a lot of good players from New Jersey when we were making our run at Wesley.

"Delaware is a well-kept secret. It's an under-recruited area. ... We want to recruit good players and good people."

Azzanesi became interested in the Alvernia job after talking with Mary-Alice Ozechoski, the university's senior vice president for enrollment and student affairs. She was formerly dean of students at Wesley when he worked there.

"She's a winner," he said. "That's one of the things that got me excited about Alvernia."

Azzanesi hasn't begun to assemble a coaching staff yet. He plans to talk to the current Wolves assistant coaches and said it's possible he would keep some of them.

At Wesley, he coached quarterback Joe Callahan, who passed for 5,063 yards and 55 touchdowns in 2015 when the Wolverines went 11-2 and won the New Jersey Athletic Conference title. Callahan was voted the winner of the Gagliardi Trophy as the nation's top player in Division III that year and signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers.

Azzanesi doesn't expect to develop many NFL players at Alvernia.

"That's not the reality," he said. "How do we set you up for the next 40 years? (It's about) being a good teammate, working well with others, being positive and encouraging others.

"Playing college football or any sport gives you the skills that you can use in the real world."