Derek Woodley is in his fifth season at the helm of the Yellow Jacket baseball program and is just the third baseball head coach in the past 30 years of the program at Defiance College.

In his first four years with the Yellow Jackets, Woodley has seen 16 DC players named to the All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Team, while also placing 12 student-athletes on the HCAC All-Academic squad.

The Yellow Jackets have shown steady improvement since Woodley took over in the dugout and took a major step forward during the 2010 campaign. Woodley guided Defiance to 16 victories in his third year at the helm, marking the program’s most wins in a single season since 1999.

Along with the improved win total in 2010, Woodley also led the Jackets to new all-time single-season records for the program in at bats, hits, doubles, innings pitched, putouts, assists and fielding percentage.

Woodley has worked hard to lay the foundation for a successful baseball program at Defiance College and has used his avid recruiting skills to consistently add depth and athleticism to the roster, while nearly doubling the squad size since coming to DC.

Along with bolstering the roster and making numerous upgrades to DC’s baseball facilities, Woodley has also implemented an active camp schedule for local youth and high school prospects during the summer and winter months.

Woodley has 18 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level and most recently served as the assistant coach at Manchester College prior to accepting his current position at DC.

During his stint at Manchester, Woodley helped guide the Spartans to a pair of appearances in the HCAC Tournament in 2006 and 2007 in addition to claiming a Midwest Regional Title.

Prior to coaching at MC, Woodley spent 12 seasons at Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota where he accumulated a 141-90 record, while winning three league titles, a pair of regional championships and two NJCAA Region XIII Coach-of-the-Year honors during a six-year stint as the Vikings’ head coach. Woodley was also an assistant at Bethany Lutheran for six seasons before taking over the reins of the program and saw the team win four league titles and three regional crowns during that time.

Along with an extensive coaching background, Woodley has served as the intramural director at Bethany Lutheran, Manchester and Defiance and was also the athletic director at Bethany Lutheran for over two full years. Woodley also served as the co-interim athletic director at Defiance during the 2009-2010 year.

Woodley worked as a part-time scout for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2000-2004 and served as a coach in the Northwoods League for the Mankato Mashers and Mankato Moondogs from 2000-2003.