Duerr Back With Fighting Scots as Assistant Coach

Seth Duerr, one of the top defensive players in College of Wooster football history, has returned to his alma mater as a full-time assistant, announced head coach Mike Schmitz. Duerr replaces two-year defensive coordinator Mike Yeager, who took a graduate assistant position on the staff at NCAA Div. I Indiana University.

Duerr’s duties for the 2005 season are not set in stone, although he will have a “significant amount of responsibility on the defensive side of the ball, working closely with (part-time assistant) Steve Kovacs,” according to Schmitz. In the long-term, Schmitz’s plan is to develop Duerr into the defensive coordinator.

“We’re certainly excited to have had the ability to attract him back to his alma mater. He obviously gave a great deal to this program,” remarked Schmitz about the Fighting Scots’ all-time leading tackler (432) and one of three players in team history to have earned All-American honors in three seasons. “He’s already distinguished himself as a coach … it’s exciting and rewarding for all of us involved.”

Duerr returns to Wooster after a one-season stint at Ohio Northern University, where he was the defensive line coach, helping the Polar Bears to an 8-2 record – a four-win improvement from 2003. Additionally, Duerr completed a two-year graduate assistantship at Averett University, coaching the running backs from 2002-03 at the USA South Conference school in Danville, Va., and he was a student assistant at Wooster during the 2001 campaign.

Among the many highlights in Duerr’s playing career for the Scots were being a finalist for the 2000 Gagliardi Trophy, annually given to NCAA Div. III’s Outstanding Football Player of the Year, twice earning first-team All-American honors (1999-00), twice receiving the Hank Critchfield Award as the North Coast Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year (1999-00), and becoming the fourth player in NCAC history to earn first-team all-conference honors all four years (1997-00). Following graduation from Wooster, Duerr played professionally one summer in Germany with the Schwabisch Hall Unicorns.

“I’m extremely excited to be back here. It’s been a dream and hope of mine to get back,” said Duerr, whose first day on the new job was March 28. “I think very highly of the school, athletic program, and coaching staff … definitely Coach Schmitz was a big influence. I have a lot of confidence (that) this football program will continue to be successful.”

The Scots are coming off their best season in school history. They finished the regular season undefeated (10-0) for the first time in 81 years (1923), won their first outright conference championship since 1934, and in their first-ever postseason appearance, advanced to the second round of the NCAA Div. III Football Championship, ending up with an 11-1 record.

A native of Bolivar, Ohio, Duerr graduated from Tuscarawas Valley High School in 1996 and holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Wooster as well as a master’s degree in teaching from Averett.