July 5, 2017

Aaron Mershman to Take Over as Head Football Coach

DEFIANCE, OHIO -- Current Defiance College Assistant Football Coach Aaron Mershman has been promoted to Head Football Coach and will take over for Casey Goff who recently resigned to take a position with The College of New Jersey.

DEFIANCE, OHIO -- Current Defiance College Assistant Football Coach Aaron Mershman has been promoted to Head Football Coach and will take over for Casey Goff who recently resigned to take a position with The College of New Jersey.

Mershman becomes the 31st head coach in program history, but is no stranger to the Yellow Jacket program after serving as assistant coach for the past two years.

"Casey [Goff] and I shared very similar values in regards to the football program and those values will continue to be built upon over the next year," said Mershman. The key to our program, is to "KEEP CLIMBING". It is based off of "The Process" that Coach Lembo stressed when I was a player and graduate assistant at Ball State. "Keep Climbing" means to focus only on the next foothold and which rock you will grab for next, always moving forward."

"As it became a possibility that Coach Goff may be offered the head coaching position at TCNJ, I began to have discussions with Aaron," said Athletic Director, Rudy Yovich. "From those conversations, it was clear that promoting Coach Mershman was the correct move for our program. Aaron has a high football IQ and his energy level is off that charts. I believe Aaron will continue to build upon our successes from 2016."

In his previous two seasons at DC, Mershman served as the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach. Defiance is coming off of one of its most successful seasons in recent years with a 5-5 mark which marked the most victories since the 2010 season. The Yellow Jacket offense also saw five players named All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference the past two seasons and set a combined five individual and team records.

Coach Mershman previously mentored the offensive line at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. before coming to DC. At BSU, Mershman worked closely with Coach John Strollo, who is widely regarded as one of the best and most innovative teachers of offensive line play in the country.

Prior to his most recent stint at Ball State, Mershman was a graduate assistant at Bowling Green State University in 2013, where he worked with the defensive line. The Falcons won the Mid-American Conference Championship and competed in a bowl game during his time on staff.

Mershman began his coaching career as a student assistant at Ball State in 2012. After a successful run as quarterback of the Bowling Green (Ohio) High School football team, Mershman played tight end for Ball State University from 2009-2011 under coach Pete Lembo. As a student-athlete at Ball State, he was a two-year letterwinner and earned honorable mention Academic All-MAC accolades.

"We have an opportunity as a staff to do something incredibly special, with a fantastic group of young men here at Defiance," added Mershman. "This is a time of great excitement at DC and we are also blessed with a tremendous core of mature leaders in our program. They are a tested and focused group that have already begun to make this transition a smooth one for the entire program."