Grove City College
BRICK BY BRICK For everything there is a season, scripture says. In 2018, it was the Wolverines’!
Reported by Aly Kruger ’19, sports editor, and The Collegian staff
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wo years ago, the Grove City College football team had just closed the book on a winless season, their third in as many years. The program faced challenges: a 0-30 record with a new head coach who had never even led a high school team, let alone a NCAA Div. III squad, and waning enthusiasm on the part of players and frustrated fans who made it to Thorn Field for games. At that point, few could imagine a future in which the Wolverines would go 8-3, qualify for post-season play for the first time in more than a generation, claim the
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first bowl game victory in program history, and see that first-time mentor named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. But all that happened in 2018. How did Grove City College’s football program turn itself around so fast? It begins and ends with head coach Andrew DiDonato ’10. DiDonato’s” brick-by-brick” approach to building the team is already part of campus lore and players say his attitude has changed the way they play – and see – the game. “He [has an] overwhelming sense of joy,” said strong safety Daniel Jackson ’19. “We lost every single game our sophomore year, his first year as head coach, and there wasn’t
a day when he came in visibly upset.” Defensive tackle Connor Lowe ’19 credited DiDonato for modeling the right attitude for his players. “It’s such a rare thing to see a guy come into work every day with the same amount of passion and fire that coach brings,” he said. “Everything he does is to glorify God,” kicker Kelsey Tishchler ’20 said. “To make the change this year required a huge shift in mental attitude and how we approached every single day of practice,” Lowe said. “We’re not overwhelmingly more talented than the 0-10 teams that came before us … It’s changed mentally.” DiDonato’s drill consists of hard work
