Coaching Hall of Famer Denny Iezzi ‘honored’ to team again with star pupil
2024 Berks football coverage
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Denny Iezzi didn’t stay away from football for very long.
Just months after stepping down as head coach at Thaddeus Stevens last season the former Daniel Boone star and longtime coach was drawn back to the game that has shaped his life.
When one of his star pupils called asking for help the 74-year-old Iezzi couldn’t say no.
“It was easy,” Iezzi said of the decision to join Brett Myers’ staff at Twin Valley, “because he’s one of the best coaches around. I was honored that he asked me, and also proud to represent him.”
Myers played for Iezzi at Middletown more than 30 years ago and the two have remained close through all the years. When Myers’ Pottstown team upset Lansdale Catholic in his first season as a head coach the first person he called immediately after the game was Iezzi. His name has remained on speed dial ever since.
“He’s always been a mentor (for me),” Myers said. “There’s so many people that he’s had an influence on. He’s set a standard for us to try to reach. There’s hundreds if not thousands of kids who felt that way, and as men we all still feel the same way.”
Myers has followed in Iezzi’s footsteps, becoming a teacher, administrator – and championship coach. He returned to Pennsylvania (after coaching in Tennessee) to take a job on Iezzi’s staff at Exeter in 2002; he later moved to Middletown where he became head coach and took his alma mater to three straight District 3 championships.
Myers is building the same kind of power at Twin Valley; in just his second season with the Raiders they won a program-record 10 games and a share of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 title – Twin Valley’s first title in 16 years and just the second in its 28-year history.
When Myers saw the chance to re-unite with his mentor he did not hesitate. He invited his high school coach to observe a winter workout and just like that Iezzi was hooked.
Now he’s out on the field with the Raiders almost every day, working with defensive backs, providing input on the defensive side – always his forte – and giving Myers a trusted wing man he can rely on for more than just X’s and O’s.
“All of our coaches are excited to hear what he thinks,” Myers said of Iezzi. “The Middletown teams he coached, they weren’t always the most talented teams but they always won. He has (a way to) get more out of his players than most.”
Iezzi’s resume includes coaching stops at eight schools – four at the high school level, four in college – with championships at many of them. He was a head coach at Bermudian Springs before taking the Middletown job; after leaving Exeter following the 2006 season he spent 17 years at the college level.
He may be the only person to achieve a Berks college hat trick, coaching at Albright, Alvernia and Kutztown.
More than half a century on the sidelines, as player and coach, led to an induction earlier this year in the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame – his sixth such Hall induction.
Iezzi’s vast knowledge of football and team-building will prove invaluable to Myers and the Raiders, who will enter the season as the favorite in Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League and as a top contender for the District 3 Class 4A title.
“His intensity is special and different than most,” Myers said. “As a kid, you see all that, how important it is to do well, and it pulls you in. You want to try to be able to do those things.”
Iezzi was a standout player at Daniel Boone where he set a record that will never be broken – he returned a kickoff 99 yards – and quarterbacked the Blazers to their only Inter-County League championship, in 1966. In 2000 he was named to the Reading Eagle’s all-decade team of the 1960’s and later was picked for the Inter-County League Hall of Fame.
He was a two-time all-league pick in basketball, played baseball and earned nine varsity letters at Boone.
He went on to play halfback at Albright before embarking on distinguished career that saw him named Coach of the Year five times and win 150 games and five league titles over 21 years as a high school head coach.
He inherited a Middletown program that had gone through eight straight losing seasons; in his third season the Blue Raiders won their first of five conference championships under him. They went on to win District 3 titles in 1986 and 1988.
Iezzi left coaching following the 1995 season in order to watch his children, Casey and Michael, finish their sports careers (in field hockey and football, respectively). He was principal at Middletown and stayed out of coaching for six years before being drawn back by the Exeter job, in part to return closer to his Birdsboro roots and family, in part to work again with Myers.
“He really knew what it took to be a coach,” Iezzi said when asked why he hired Myers. “He knew it was 24/7, and that’s the way he approached it. He’s one of the most intelligent people I know. It’s important when you’re a head coach to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.”
Myers believes the same; that’s why he recruited Iezzi. Their football lives have been intertwined for decades and each is the other’s biggest fan. Nothing made Myers prouder than to return football glory to Middletown, paying homage to his old coach.
Football-wise Myers hasn’t strayed much from the football seeds planted by Iezzi. He still believes in building a football team through discipline and commitment; that’s what Iezzi saw immediately when he dropped by a weight training session last winter.
“I was so impressed with all of these young men and how they respond in the structure that he’s developed,” Iezzi said. “It’s really special here. You watch the kids lift, you go: Whew. Everybody’s zoned in, focused, and doing what they’re supposed to do. That’s everything that Brett has created.”
Iezzi’s role will be more big picture than hands-on, though he’s sure to have direct input in a defense that needs some propping up: The Raiders allowed over 300 yards per game last season and gave up 52 and 65 points in their two losses.
He is officially listed as Defensive Operations coach.
“Somebody with 50 years of experience as an educator — he’s a pretty good resource to (have, to) watch how we do things and coach the coaches on our techniques.”
As is his nature Iezzi downplays his part; it’s always been, and always will be, about the team.
“I feel honored that he invited me in to help,” Iezzi said of Myers. “I’m very proud of what he’s done and how he has done it. He emphasizes academics. He doesn’t draw a line between academics and athletics; it’s (of) the same (importance).
“He wants a certain type of behavior from his kids so that they’re respectful, so that they know how to handle winning, how to handle losing. I’m very proud of what he does and how he does.
“For me to be helping him . . . I feel fortunate and humbled.”
