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| Marietta athletics photo |
Andy Waddle has been named head football coach at Valparaiso, a Division I non-scholarship program.
A two-time Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, Waddle spent the past 12 years as the head coach of Marietta. The Pioneers started the 2024 season 8-0, the first 8-0 start in program history. The program enjoyed a 13-game winning streak that spanned the end of the 2023 season and start of the 2024 campaign, tied for the longest in program history and the program's longest since 1920. The 13-game winning streak was at the time tied with Army for the second longest active winning streak in all of NCAA college football, behind only Cortland's 20-game streak which was snapped this past weekend.
"My family and I have loved living in Marietta and leading our football team. This program not only has very talented athletes, but we also have outstanding young men and that's what I'm most proud of," Waddle said. "Marietta will always be home to my family and we look forward to watching the Pioneers continue the success and traditions that we began together."
Waddle guided the squad to a combined 16-5 record and 14-2 mark in the OAC over the past two seasons. He successfully engineered a turnaround of the Marietta program, leading the team to a record of .500 or better in seven of the last eight years after the Pioneers had previously experienced nine consecutive losing seasons.
When Waddle took over as the head coach at Marietta prior to the 2013 season, he inherited a program that had won three or fewer games in each of the previous six years and was coming off an 0-10 season. Before Waddle's eight-year run of sustained success that began in 2017, Marietta had a winning record just twice in a 20-year span.
Valparaiso is a member of the Pioneer Football League, the nation's only non-scholarship, football-only Division I FCS conference. The Beacons went 4-7 this fall and posted a 2-5 league record. It is the same conference in which former Division III member St. Thomas is a member for football.