Wesley College Athletic Director and head coach Mike Drass scheduled a Football Championship Subdivision opponent for Oct. 1 simply out of necessity. But with the success that Drass and his Wolverines had on the field this past weekend, it makes sense why he says ‘we’d do it again.’

Division-III Wesley defeated FCS opponent Charleston Southern, 32-20, last Saturday, during CSU’s homecoming weekend. In the first two drives of the game, the Wesley offense was pinned at its own 2- and 5-yard line, but took the ball down field for scoring drives both times. This gave the Wolverines momentum for the rest of the game.

Wesley, located in Dover, Del., isn’t in a football league, and each game is scheduled individually, Drass said. In early February, Drass noticed the squad still had an open date Oct. 1, so he sent an email out to schools on the East Coast. Charleston Southern took the team up on its offer.

‘We want to play 10 games, and we knew it would be a major step up from a competition standpoint,’ Drass said. ‘Our kids were excited about it, but I wasn’t looking for a I-AA team or a scholarship team. For me, we were in a position that we were going to play people who wanted to play us.’

Drass wasn’t surprised by his team’s win. Some players on the team had experience playing against a team of this caliber — Wesley beat Iona in 2007, when the school still had a football program — but he knew he had to prepare his team tactfully to avoid anxiousness once they hit the field.

Going into the game, the coaching staff tried to keep the excitement down to a minimum. Drass said they ‘weren’t trying to make this the Super Bowl.’ But the preparation proved difficult for the coaches, said offensive coordinator and associate head coach Chip Knapp.

The film used to prepare for the game was from a game against Atlantic Coast Conference team Florida State, who demolished CSU 62-10.

‘It was a bit of uncharted waters, it was hard to tell the talent level,’ he said. ‘Since there was some unbalanced play there, you prepare as you do for any other team.’

Although the preparation was atypical, the typical pregame energy was evident once the team got to campus. After a 10-hour bus ride, the Wolverines pulled up to streets lined with palm trees and thousands of alumni tailgating for the Buccaneers’ homecoming weekend. As the pregame announcements began, Knapp said, the team didn’t have to get motivated for the game — because of the atmosphere, they couldn’t help but be excited.

But once the team hit the field, Knapp said, it was business as usual.

And that business resulted in a decisive victory for a team two divisions lower than its opponent.

After the game, the 10-hour bus ride back to Dover allowed the team to soak in the victory. The feeling of satisfaction was apparent. Not to mention, the response from friends, family and other coaches who were watching along. The text messages and congratulatory phone calls were much appreciated, Knapp said.

‘Normally, you hear from your family. But we were hearing from people we hadn’t heard from in a while,’ he said. ‘It made it a little bit better to win that game.’

But perhaps more importantly, the game gave the players an opportunity to show they could play at a higher level — something many of them aspired to do, Knapp said. He hopes the win can help Division III shed the stigma of being the lowest level of college football.

‘High school kids don’t aspire to play Division-III football,’ he said. ‘But maybe they’ll look at D-III a little bit different than they used to.’

knmciner@syr.edu

Published on October 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm