The Guide 8.24 - Flipbook - Page 32
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EDUCATION
NAVY ATHLETICS
YEAR IN REVIEW
Chet Gladchuk retirement headlines momentous year
By Bill Wagner
It was a monumental year for Navy
athletics, with the football program posting a historic season, the longtime men’s
basketball coach retiring, and a change of
leadership at the top of the department.
The community also mourned the
loss of the voice of Navy athletics, a lifelong resident of southern Anne Arundel
County.
The biggest story of the 2024-2025
academic year was the retirement of
longtime athletic director Chet Gladchuk. In early April, he stepped down as
president of the Naval Academy Athletic
Association after 24 years at the helm.
Gladchuk presided over the most
successful era in Navy athletics history.
During his tenure, the Midshipmen
captured four national championships and 251 conference crowns, while
producing 352 All-Americans and 139
Academic All-Americans.
Under Gladchuk’s guidance, Navy
established a Patriot League record by
capturing the coveted President’s Cup in
10 consecutive years and 11 times overall.
The cup is awarded to the Patriot League
member institution with the highest
cumulative score based on a combination of regular-season and tournament
finishes in each sport.
One of Gladchuk’s greatest achievements involved turning around Navy’s
struggling football program, which
compiled a 1-20 record in the two seasons
before his arrival. After being hired in
September 2001, Gladchuk fired coach
Charlie Weatherbie seven games into
that season and persuaded his former
offensive coordinator, Paul Johnson, to
return.
Johnson oversaw a remarkable turnaround that led to the most successful
era in Navy football history, with winning
records in 15 of 16 seasons. The Midshipmen captured the Commander-inChief’s Trophy 10 times and were bowl
game champions eight times from 2003
to 2019.
Over the previous decade, Navy teams
Navy men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis,
shown during the Patriot League
Tournament championship game against
American on March 12, had a 196-230
record in 14 seasons with the Mids.
PAUL W. GILLESPIE/STAFF
New Navy athletic director Michael Kelly, left, gets a framed jersey from his predecessor,
Chet Gladchuk, who said his goodbyes to staff and introduced Kelly during a June 24 event.
PAUL W. GILLESPIE/STAFF
claimed 84 Patriot League championships, with the next closest school totaling only 38. Navy has dominated archrival
Army during Gladchuk’s tenure, winning
the Star Series competition in 21 of the
past 23 years.
Under Gladchuk, Navy added six
varsity sports and is tied with Ohio State
and Stanford for the most in Division
I with 36 total. He was responsible for
hiring 35 of the 36 varsity coaches.
In a somewhat unusual move, Gladchuk was heavily involved with the hiring
of his successor and the Naval Academy
Athletic Association ultimately tapped
Michael Kelly, who had spent the previous seven years as athletic director at the
University of South Florida.
Kelly was officially named the 29th
athletic director in Naval Academy
history on June 4. The 54-year-old is only
the fourth athletic director since 1968
and just the third civilian to hold the post,
joining Gladchuk and Jack Lengyel.
Kelly, the son of a 1967 Naval Academy
graduate, was raised in Washington, D.C.,
and attended St. John’s College High.
He lived in Annapolis as a boy while his
father was stationed at the academy and
grew up going to Navy football games.
“It’s not lost on me that there have
been three athletic directors at the Naval
Academy since I’ve been on this earth.
It doesn’t come open much because it’s
a great job, one you never want to leave,”
Kelly said. “It’s a great athletic director
job, in and of itself, but obviously it gets
involved in a bigger mission and everything the Naval Academy stands for in
developing leaders.”
In a March surprise, Ed DeChellis
announced that he was retiring as Navy
men’s basketball coach after 14 years on
the job. DeChellis made the decision one
week after leading the Midshipmen on a
magical run to the championship game of
the Patriot League Tournament.
DeChellis, who compiled a 196-230
record at Navy from 2001 through 2025,
cited a desire to spend quality time with
his immediate family — wife, daughters
and grandchildren — as the reason for his
Navy football coach Brian Newberry looks
on during the second half of a 51-17 win
against Charlotte in October in Annapolis.
TERRANCE WILLIAMS/FREELANCE
abrupt departure.
DeChellis, 66, ranks third all-time at
Navy in total wins behind Ben Carnevale (257-160, 1946 to 1966) and John
Wilson (206-94, 1926 to 1946). He was on
the bench for more games (426) at Navy
than any other men’s basketball coach,
surpassing Carnevale (417) last season.
Also, DeChellis coached in 29 ArmyNavy games, tied with Don DeVoe for the
most in program history. Meanwhile, his
nine conference tournament wins put
him second only to DeVoe.
In a heartfelt interview with Capital Gazette, DeChellis acknowledged
that the sudden deaths of two longtime
friends partly motivated his decision. In
the span of a week, longtime Navy radio
broadcaster Pete Medhurst and former
DeChellis assistant Ernie Nestor died.
Medhurst, who had been a member of
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