Johns Hopkins football promotes defensive coordinator Dan Wodicka to head coach

Dan Wodicka’s move in the workplace won’t involve much distance.

Wodicka, the defensive coordinator for Johns Hopkins football, was promoted to head coach, the program announced Thursday. Wodicka, who fills the role previously occupied by Greg Chimera, becomes the 28th head coach in school history and the second consecutive leader from the coaching tree planted by the late Jim Margraff.

“This feels absolutely right,” said Wodicka, a native of West Lafayette, Indiana. “Homewood Field [the site of Blue Jays home games] is home for me, Baltimore is home. I’ve lived 11 out of my 14 years as an adult here between school and work. So it really does feel like this is the perfect fit, and I couldn’t be more excited to keep this tradition of winning here at Hopkins.”

Johns Hopkins athletic director Jennifer S. Baker said Wodicka was one of 10 candidates she and a search committee interviewed for the vacancy.

“We talked to a number of different coaches and a pretty diverse group of coaches, and Dan set himself apart from the outset,” she said. “Candidly, I have a pretty strong track record of hiring sitting head coaches, and Dan does not have head coaching experience, but he presented himself as somebody who has that kind of experience, who can be the CEO of our program, and who cares for our young men in the way we want them to be cared for.

“He understands Hopkins so deeply and takes so much pride in this place. He understands what it is to be a player here, he understands how to be successful here, and he wants that for his players, and I have every confidence that he can sustain that because I think he’s been in that place.”

Wodicka, a 2014 graduate of the university with a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering, molded a defense that ended last season ranked 15th among all NCAA Division III schools…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/johns-hopkins-football-promotes-defensive-152400392.html

Author : Baltimore Sun

Publish date : 2024-02-01 15:24:00

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