As we all know coach Dawczak is stepping down as the head football coach at Marist after seven winning seasons and arguably the best Marist coaching career of all time. He has the most wins in Marist history with a record of 56-24.
Coach Dawczak graduated from Marist then went to the University of Chicago. After that he worked as an options trader for 14 years before coming back to Marist as a teacher. Then starting his coaching career as the assistant coach of the freshmen team. Dawczak then climbed the ranks becoming the head coach of the varsity team in 2017.
“I stepped into a great situation when Coach [Patrick] Dunne stepped back. I had a great staff and a lot of talent in the program. I think the same thing can be said about the current situation,” said Dawczak.
He took over from Dunne who had a great career and ended with two straight winning seasons before stepping down. Dawczak asked coach Dunne a lot of questions when he first took over as head coach and Coach Fitzgerald will have the opportunity to get coach Dawczak’s opinion on some things as well. Coach Fitzgerald is taking over a program that has had a lot of recent success. Fitzgerald is in a great position to succeed right away.
“I love developing relationships with players over their time in the program,” said Dawczak.
He stressed that the off the field relationships and moments meant more to him than wins and losses. “It’s great to see kids mature and grow into upstanding young men,” he said. Football at Marist is bigger than just a game because of the friendships players make and also the opportunities they get.
“We try to set players up for success off the field once they are done playing,” he said.
Dawczak also mentioned that many players end up playing in the Ivy League. His teams have had 27 IHSFCA Academic All-State honorees. “The benefits of coming to Marist is we are really going to work on not only developing kids as a football player but also make sure that they excel in every aspect,” he said.
“It’s a great product to sell, the education coupled with the athletic opportunities we provide,” he said.
Marist has many great players and people come here because of the opportunities the school provides. Many players go onto play at major programs like Iowa, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and other great schools. Coach Dawczak has been very successful at getting players to the next level.
“My favorite memory is the run we made in 2019,” said Dawczak.
Marist had a record of 4-4 and needed to win to make the playoffs. They beat Loyola at Loyal for the first time in school history to make it to the playoffs. Marist then had to play Loyola at Loyola again in the playoffs three weeks later and beat them again.
Thank you to Coach Dawczak for seven years of coaching at Marist.
