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Sussex Central football defensive coordinator Dave “Nut” Marvel has been on the gridiron sidelines for over three decades, so while he has seen his fair share of changes, not much surprises him.
Earlier this year, however, football – albeit off the field – surprised the boisterous leader during the sport’s annual awards dinner, as he was named the Assistant Coach of the Year. Marvel is just the second coach to earn the award.
“These guys, [head coach John] Wells and our assistants got me. I’ve never been to one of these ceremonies before and they wanted me to go, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Marvel said. “Even after we got there, I didn’t know they had an assistant coach of the year award, and until coach Wells was up there and talking about me, I didn’t even think it was going to be me.
“It was a special feeling to have my name announced though and go up there and speak. This is something I accepted on behalf of the team, because these types of things are total team efforts.”
Coordinating a defense is one of the toughest jobs in all of sports, as generally the plan has to be formulated to meet whatever a challenge an opposing offense brings. When Marvel first began his coaching career, several high school offenses relied on the ground game and misdirection, but not teams are trying all sorts of gimmicks when they have the ball.
“It used to be a lot of the Wing-T and other running offenses, but now one week you face the spread, another it’s something like an option offense, you ever know what you are going to have to be prepared to stop,” Marvel said. “Even offenses like the Wing-T have different variations now, so you can’t go in looking to do the same thing against teams that run it, like Cape [Henlopen] and [Sussex] Tech. It makes the job even more fun, but it’s challenging.”
Thankfully for Central and Golden Knights fans, Marvel would like to continue tackling that challenge for as long as he’s able.
The architect of a defense that continually ranks as one of the state’s elite and has aided Central in capturing four of the last five Henlopen North titles, Marvel is still quite humble.
“Coaching with [coach] Wells and here at Central is an honor,” Marvel said with a smile, “and I’ll keep doing it as long as I can and they’ll have me.”
Sussex Central football defensive coordinator Dave “Nut” Marvel has been on the gridiron sidelines for over three decades, so while he has seen his fair share of changes, not much surprises him.
Earlier this year, however, football – albeit off the field – surprised the boisterous leader during the sport’s annual awards dinner, as he was named the Assistant Coach of the Year. Marvel is just the second coach to earn the award.
“These guys, [head coach John] Wells and our assistants got me. I’ve never been to one of these ceremonies before and they wanted me to go, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Marvel said. “Even after we got there, I didn’t know they had an assistant coach of the year award, and until coach Wells was up there and talking about me, I didn’t even think it was going to be me.
“It was a special feeling to have my name announced though and go up there and speak. This is something I accepted on behalf of the team, because these types of things are total team efforts.”
Coordinating a defense is one of the toughest jobs in all of sports, as generally the plan has to be formulated to meet whatever a challenge an opposing offense brings. When Marvel first began his coaching career, several high school offenses relied on the ground game and misdirection, but not teams are trying all sorts of gimmicks when they have the ball.
“It used to be a lot of the Wing-T and other running offenses, but now one week you face the spread, another it’s something like an option offense, you ever know what you are going to have to be prepared to stop,” Marvel said. “Even offenses like the Wing-T have different variations now, so you can’t go in looking to do the same thing against teams that run it, like Cape [Henlopen] and [Sussex] Tech. It makes the job even more fun, but it’s challenging.”
Thankfully for Central and Golden Knights fans, Marvel would like to continue tackling that challenge for as long as he’s able.
The architect of a defense that continually ranks as one of the state’s elite and has aided Central in capturing four of the last five Henlopen North titles, Marvel is still quite humble.
“Coaching with [coach] Wells and here at Central is an honor,” Marvel said with a smile, “and I’ll keep doing it as long as I can and they’ll have me.”
