Head coach Brad Spencer is a North Central alumnus, and so are the assistant coaches behind him in this photo: Dylan Warden, Tyler Egan and Blake Williams. Photo by Steve Woltmann for North Central athletics

By Joe Sager
D3sports.com

It’s a known fact that Cardinals don’t migrate.

At Naperville, especially, they always seem to stick around.

Look no further than North Central’s coaching staff. It’s loaded with Cardinals. A total of 15 alumni fill out the 23-man coaching roster. That 65 percent alumni rate has to be among the highest among for coaching staffs in the country.

It all starts with head coach Brad Spencer. He grew up around the Cardinals program while his dad Rick spent four decades in school administration. After a four-year career as the program’s all-time leader in receiving yards, receptions and touchdown catches, Spencer transitioned to wide receivers coach in 2004, then was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2015 before taking over the head coaching job last year.

So, he understands what North Central football means and is thrilled to surround himself with those who do, too.

“It’s very unique. At last count, there are 15 alums around every day. Some are part-time and some are full-time coaches. It’s been great to keep guys around who love Cardinal football and who believe in what we’re doing and believe in our culture and – more importantly – believe in our kids and coach them the way we want them to be coached,” he said. “As our baseball coach, Coach Mathey, who I have been around my entire life, says, when there’s blood in the bricks, it means a little more.

“A football team is a lot like a family. In order to function and get better and have great times together and work through things, you have to be able to love each other and have great relationships,” he continued. “The biggest advantage of having so many alums on the staff is they already have built-in relationships and the players see that and recognize that. They see how much they care about each other.”

Spencer has a long history with many of his assistants. He played with current offensive coordinator Eric Stuedemann for one season and coached him for three more. Spencer personally recruited assistants Shane Dierking, Dylan Warden, Emonte Logan and Andrew Kamienski as players as well.

“You see alumni coaching at other places like Mount Union, St. John’s, Wheaton and Trinity, just to name a few,” Spencer said. “It keeps the history alive – all the hard work put in by the alumni, donors, administration and presidents we’ve been able to have. It’s fun to be able to tell those stories now and then, too.”

The Cardinals players love it.

“I think it’s a really special thing. It just shows the love the guys have when they come here to play and it carries into their post-playing career life and how much they want to give back to the younger generations,” said Nick Fehrle, the team’s starting left guard and younger brother of tight ends coach Joel Fehrle. “That feeds us, as players, wanting to give back to them as alumni because they laid the groundwork for what we’re doing right now.”

The brotherhood is a good recruiting tool, too.

“I would say it speaks volumes on our culture because, we all love each other around here. We all, between (members of the) coaching staff, coaching staff to player, we all love each other and it shows volumes how we keep hiring dudes that are alumni and they want to change our lives – not just in football, our lives in general,” senior wide receiver DeAngelo Hardy said. “And that’s what really stuck out to me and that’s why I really came here. That’s why – when I came on my visit and everything, I saw a lot of North Central alums as coaches and I knew that it’s a special place to be.”

Having those built-in connections ensures the coaches can hit the ground running, too, without micromanagement.

“Especially being a head coach and newer in my head coaching career, being able to have guys around you that you trust and you don’t have to teach the cultural piece is huge,” Spencer said. “They are going to coach the right way and are here for the right reasons. The want to fulfill our ultimate mission of building All-American fathers, husbands and teammates.”

Trust has become a fleeting thing in college football, too.

“In college football, it’s all about leaving now. Coaches and players are leaving one place for another for money,” Spencer said. “To have people that are doing the opposite and coming back and staying, I think, is really strong statement.”

That doesn’t mean people can’t leave the program to climb the coaching ladder.

“What’s been fun for me is to see the growth of these guys,” Spencer said. “Like Shane Dierking – he was an All-American here and then a graduate assistant. He went to Benedictine to be a defensive coordinator. We brought him back in 2018. The growth and knowledge he gained was incredible. Coach (D.J.) Warkenthien was a graduate assistant here and then went off to be a graduate assistant at Nevada and then came back here this summer.

“It just happens to be these guys are really good coaches. We’re not hiring every single alum,” he continued. “It’s been my personal mission to continue to grow our staff. We always select the best candidate and, if it happens to be alums we hire, then great.”

Just being a North Central grad doesn’t guarantee a job.

“We have some excellent, excellent coaches that are not alumni. Coach (Kalus) Murphy is our safeties coach. He is phenomenal – one of the brightest young minds around. Same thing with Coach (Daniel) Packard is from Texas. He’s a great young coach and he’s helped us open up Texas a bit, in terms of recruiting. So, we’re not all alums. If anything, we were probably tougher on our alums in the interview process than the other candidates. It’s working out, though.”

Indeed. North Central (13-0) is in the national semifinals for the fourth year in a row. The Cardinals are defending champions. They won a national title in 2019, too, in addition to being the defending national champion.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s great being around all the guys. This year, we have a bunch of young guys on staff and they bring such a good energy. A lot of them played with some older kids on the team now. That allows them to be very honest. The kids understand they are doing it for the betterment of the player and the team.

“Of course, it helps we have some of those guys running around that are pretty good at football, too.”

They need to get past Wartburg (13-0) on the road Saturday to reach their fourth consecutive Stagg Bowl.

“Every team in the playoffs, these guys are all winners. They are here for a reason,” Nick Fehrle said. “It’s super fun. My brother coached at Wartburg in 2021 before coming back to North Central. So, it’s interesting we get to meet up with them. They are great program. It’ll be a battle. Everybody knows that. It should be a really fun game.”