By Andy Walter

DOVER — The timing of things was a little surreal.

On the same February day that word was coming out that Wesley College was doing away with its athletic department at the end of spring, the Wolverines’ softball team was beginning pre-season practice.

Before she gave her players the bad news, though, Wesley coach Juli Greep asked them what they wanted to accomplish this spring.
“They were like, ‘To win the conference,’” said Greep. “Then I said, ‘OK, what is our goal after that?’ They said, ‘To make the NCAA Tournament.’

“I said, ‘That’s great. That’s exactly what we want to do.’ Then I said, ‘If we do this, we will be the first Wesley College softball team to do this, and we will unfortunately be the last.’”

To say this past school year has been a difficult one in the Wesley athletics world would be an understatement.

When Delaware State announced last summer that it would be taking over some aspects of Wesley College, the Wolverines’ coaches and student-athletes started worrying about their future.

While Wesley’s coaches say they were told by their administrators just to continue on as if nothing was going to change, privately they had their doubts about how the NCAA Division III program could have a path forward under the new configuration.

Sure enough, a DSU-Wesley study determined it wouldn’t be feasible to run two athletic programs. The Wolverines’ coaches were finally told the program’s fate in February.

Now, with the semester winding down, only a handful of spring teams are left competing for Wesley. But all the school’s coaches are busy dismantling the programs that they’ve helped build.

They are trying to help their players find new schools while also looking for jobs for themselves and their assistants. There are all kinds of uniforms, trophies and decades of memorabilia that they’re not sure what to do with.

The fact that many Wesley teams only got to play a handful of games this school year because of the pandemic only adds another layer of loss to the situation for the Wolverines.

Wesley football coach Chip Knapp has been at Wesley since 1989, when he was hired as an assistant coach.

“Everyone’s just trying to kind of take care of their own situations now and move forward,” said Knapp. “Coaches are trying to find new jobs.

“It’s still like the stages of grief. We’re still going through it. Now it’s becoming more acceptance and trying to move on. You’ve been through this cycle (of seasons) over and over. Part of you thinks it’s still going to continue, just because it’s your routine.”

With the football team playing three games earlier this spring, Knapp said people in the program were able to focus on the day-to-day operation of the team.

“But it definitely now has become obvious that we’ve got to change course,” said Knapp. “It kind of hits you in the face now. Now you’ve just got to deal with the reality that there’s going to be no fall season.”

Knapp is hardly Wesley’s only longtime coach.

Men’s soccer coach Steve Clark has been at the school since 1990 and field hockey coach/athletic director Tracy Short started in 1995 — the same year that Wesley grad Ed Muntz became the school’s first and only women’s soccer coach.

James Wearden (women’s basketball, 15 seasons), Brett Underwood (baseball, 13 seasons) and Dean Burrows (men’s basketball, nine seasons) have all coached at Wesley for nine seasons or more.

The coaches’ contracts run out at the end of June.

Given the national success of the Wolverines’ football program, Knapp has a great deal of memorabilia that he’s trying to find a home for. He’s also thinking of starting a scholarship fund in the name of late Wesley coach Mike Drass.

“It’s probably the final task that we’ll have,” Knapp said about trying to place the memorabilia.

“I hadn’t changed jobs (before) and now I finally get to experience that,” he quipped. “There’s really nothing to compare it to. For me and the people that have coached here, you’re just going to have to be able to move on and be flexible enough to go on to the next job.”

After a decade as Wesley’s softball coach, Greep has already found her next job. In July, she’ll start working as the director of softball for the All-Star Baseball Academy in West Chester, Pa.

In the meantime, though, she and the Wolverines are still writing the final chapter in the school’s softball history.

Wesley is 13-1 in the Atlantic East Conference and 15-5 overall with four games still on the regular-season schedule. Greep said she couldn’t be more proud of the way her players have handled the season.

“I have the best team that you could ever go through this situation with,” she said. “We want to give everything we have. And it’s more related to COVID, quite honestly, not so much the school.

“It’s been more like, you never know when your last opportunity is going to be, so take advantage of it now. ... just embrace the moment that you’re in.”

But even while the Wolverines are focusing on winning games, they’re also thinking about their own futures. Greep has had some of her underclassmen talk to opposing coaches after games to see if they’re interested in recruiting them.

“I want them to know that I’m invested in making sure that they are getting the academic and athletic experience that they were promised here,” said Greep. “And just making sure that they end up where they’re supposed to be in a situation where they can be successful again.

“I don’t think it’s been a distraction at all. I think it’s almost been more of a motivating factor because they’re trying to impress other coaches.”

As for making the NCAA playoffs, that won’t be easy for the Wolverines. But they’re determined to try to get there.

After all, it’s now or never.

“They have been so bought in,” said Greep. “I think it’s just been a belief that they know that they can do this and they can achieve this. They want to be the first and the last.”