This is the year for Steve Azzanesi and Alvernia football

Steve Azzanesi works out of a modest-sized office in the bottom floor of Alvernia’s Physical Education Center, but the room in not nearly large enough to contain his boundless enthusiasm.

The Golden Wolves’ new football coach is eager to get back on the road in May, to crank up recruiting and to share his excitement about Alvernia University and what it has to offer.

He inherited roughly half a Division III college roster — 55 players — and a program that has produced a mere three wins in the four years since it kicked off.

The Wolves went winless a year ago, yet Azzanesi is not deterred. He doesn’t see a glass that’s half full; he sees one that’s about to be filled to the brim.

“I feel Alvernia has everything you need to be successful as a football program,” says the 44-year-old Delaware native. “I really believe this could be a special place, and we’re on that track.”

Azzanesi was hired in late January, meaning he was well behind in the recruiting game when he first stepped on campus. He retained just two coaches from the previous staff and still hasn’t fully filled it.

Logic dictates it should take a college coach several years to get a program up and running, especially when taking over a start-up operation that was barely off the ground before COVID wiped out its third season.

Azzanesi, in the coaching business for over two decades, knows this to be true . . . yet he refuses to yield to negative thoughts.

“I feel like we can be a good football team, I really do,” he says. “I know I’m supposed to say it’s going to take a couple years, but these guys are hungry.

“They’re working so hard, learning the offense, learning the new defense.

“I think we can be a good football team, I really do,” he says joyfully. “When I was at Wesley, every year would I tell my kids: ‘We’re winning the national championship,’ and I swear (I thought) we were.”

Luke, Paul and Marin would roll their eyes upon hearing the annual proclamation.

“We were so close,” he said, “so, I wasn’t way off. My kids think it’s funny when I say: ‘This is the year.’ “

Alvernia won’t win a national championship this year, or anytime soon, but if it can share even a portion of the success Azzanesi enjoyed at Wesley College all will be happy.

Azzanesi was at Wesley — a Division III school located in Dover, Del. — for 18 seasons and knew nothing but winning. He was the offensive coordinator and assistant coach and saw the Wolverines go 180-42 and make the NCAA Tournament 14 times; they reached the national semifinals six times.

More recently he was at Delaware State, where he was the Hornets’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for two seasons. Coaching at an FCS (formerly Division I-AA) school, he could offer scholarships. In the Middle Atlantic Conference he doesn’t have that luxury. He has to sell himself and the school. He seems well-equipped to do both.

“This is harder recruiting, but more enjoyable,” he said, “because you get to build way more relationships. I like this model way better. This is my strength, Division III.”

It’s where he developed his roots. At Wesley he was an all-conference quarterback, a shortstop and captain on the baseball team — even picked up a stick for the first time and played a season of lacrosse once his baseball eligibility was exhausted.

Ambitious and unwilling to waste time or money, he went after a second undergraduate degree, in accounting; his first degree was in communications. He put the first to use right out of college and went into broadcasting; he was a videographer and then a weekend sports anchor on the Delmarva Peninsula for 2 1/2 years before he was lured back to football.

The communications degree comes into play daily in his job, especially on the recruiting trail. He and his coaching staffing — two holdovers from the last staff and several others with Wesley ties — need to more than double their roster size. He would like to get to 125 players at some point; maybe not for the 2022 season but by 2023.

“If we can get to 100, that would be great,” he said, “we’ll be able to play five JV games; that’s important.”

Azzanesi is convinced Alvernia offers great opportunities for high school football players; it’s his job to convince them of that.

“If you look at facilities, this place is beautiful,” he said. “(Academically) Alvernia has everything you would want: business, criminal justice, athletic training, engineering — everything you need to get to where you want to be in life.”

When asked about plans for the program, Azzanesi spends more time talking about people than football. Developing young athletes into well-rounded adults is the key to success at this level, he believes. Winning football games will come hand-in-hand with that.

“(When we’re recruiting) we’re looking for a great player, but just as importantly we’re looking for good people — Is that guy going to be a good teammate? — because that’s so important. We’re looking for that combination; a complete guy, that’s important.

“The biggest part (of this job) is developing young men. Any coach we hire, that has to be at the top of their list. They’re in coaching to help young men get to where they want to be. We need to do our part and keep developing these guys toward their goals.”