ASSISTANT COACHES NAMED
CLARION UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES 2006 FOOTBALL STAFF
Clarion Athletic Director Dave Katis
has announced the hiring of four assistant football coaches, which will complete
the staff for new head coach Jay Foster.
The Golden Eagles have named Dave
Durish as offensive coordinator, Dwayne Martin as defensive coordinator, Chris
Weibel as an assistant coach (offensive backs/quarterbacks) and Jesse Kelley as
its defensive line coach.
“I’m very pleased with the staff
we’ve put together for the coming season,” said new head football coach Jay
Foster. “They are extremely knowledgeable, hard working and dedicated football
coaches with a lot of field experience,” he continued. “I’m equally impressed
with their commitment to the development of the total student athlete, both
athletically and academically. That’s important to our program.”
Durish, 37, who will be
Clarion’s offensive coordinator, has experience of both sides of the football
and has previous coaching experience at Clarion. Dave most recently was the
defensive backfield coach and academic coordinator at NCAA D-I AA Georgia
Southern University in 2005. Prior to that he was the defensive quality control
coach and assistant strength coach at Illinois from August 2004 to June 2005. He
was also the defensive line coach, strength and conditioning coordinator and
assistant athletic director for Millikin from June 2000 to June 2004 and the
defensive line coach at Case Western in 1999. Durish was Clarion’s offensive
line coach and recruiting coordinator for the 1997 and 1998 seasons, plus was a
graduate assistant at Clarion for three seasons (1993-95). He earned his Masters
Degree at Clarion in Education in 1995. On offense he coached backs, tight ends
and wide receivers. He was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at
Ohio Wesleyan in 1996. A native of Ambridge, Pa. and a 1987 grad of Ambridge
High, Dave is a 1991 graduate of IUP. Dave is married to Tracy Barnett, a native
of nearby Dayton, a former volleyball star for the Golden Eagles and a 1999
graduate.
Martin, 34, will be Clarion’s
defensive coordinator. He comes to the Golden Eagles from Slippery Rock, where
he was the linebackers coach from 2002-2005. Martin also ran the team’s Minority
Mentoring program among other responsibilities. He of course worked closely with
Jay Foster, who was SRU’s defensive coordinator at that time. The SRU defense
ranked #1 in the PSAC against the pass the last two seasons and also ranked #4
in the PSAC in total defense in 2005 and #5 in 2004. Prior to that he was
defensive backs coach at Wesley College (Dover, De.) for two years (2000, 2001)
and running backs coach for one season (1999), and spent two years as defensive
coordinator at West Virginia Tech (1997, 98) and one year at Tech as an
assistant coach (1996). Martin attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and
earned four varsity letters playing defensive back. He is a native of Akron,
Ohio and is a 1990 graduate of Akron - Garfield High. Dwayne and his wife Robin
have a son Don Dwayne Jr., and a daughter Ellasondra.
Weibel, 30, was a member of
the Clarion staff for the 2004 and 2005 seasons and was rehired to coach the
offensive backfield and quarterbacks, as well as named Recruiting Coordinator.
Weibel, a native of East Brady and a 1993 graduate of Kittanning High School,
was an All-America quarterback at Clarion playing in 1993, 95-98. He holds 5
career and 3 single season records. In his Clarion career he completed 586 of
1,065 passes for 7.845 yards and 65 td’s. He led Clarion to an 11-3 season in
1996, the East Regional title, a trip to the “Final Four” and the Lambert Cup.
After graduating in 1998, he played nearly 5 years of professional football
including stints with the Erie Invaders (IFL) in 2000, Florida Firecats (AFL 2)
in 2001, Greensboro Prowlers (AFL 2) in 2002, Myrtle Beach Sting Rays (NIFL) in
2003 and Grand Rapids (AFL) in 2004.
Kelley, 26, will coach the
defensive line at Clarion and become the team’s strength and conditioning coach.
Kelley was a standout at Slippery Rock from 2001-2004 as a linebacker and
defensive end. As a senior he totaled 36 tackles including 6.5 tfl’s and 4
sacks. In his career he posted 159 tackles, 19.5 tfl’s and 7 sacks. A PSAC
Scholar Athlete, he earned his B.S. Degree at Slippery Rock in the Fall of 2003
and will earn his M.S. at SRU in 2006. Following the end of his football career,
he was a graduate assistant coach at Slippery Rock in the Spring of 2005, spent
the Summer as an intern at Auburn University as a strength and conditioning
coach and from the Fall of 2005 to he Spring of 2006 as a volunteer coach at the
U.S. Olympic Training Center and as an intern at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Kelley is a native of Fernandina Beach, Florida and is a 1997 grad of Fernandina
Beach High.
CLARION NOTES: Clarion started
its Spring practices this week... The Spring game is set for Saturday, April
29th at 6pm... Coach Foster is preparing for his first season as head coach...
He was hired February 8th ... He spent the last 18 years at Slippery Rock and
the last 17 of those as defensive coordinator... SRU was 120-73-4 (61.9%) over
those 18 seasons, including 3 NCAA Division II Playoff invitations and 4 PSAC-West
titles. Slippery Rock won four straight PSAC-West crowns from 1997-2000, was an
NCAA Division II semifinalist in 1998 and ranked second in the nation in 1999.