Avila Welcomes Derrick Alexander as Head Football Coach

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Avila University Department of Athletics is excited to announce today, January 12, 2023, that former Avila assistant coach and Kansas City Chiefs standout Derrick Alexander has been named the next head football coach at Avila University.

"We are very excited to welcome Derrick back to Avila University as our head football coach," Avila University Director of Athletics Shawn Summe said. "Derrick has the personality, work ethic and football knowledge to continue to grow our football program, but more importantly is committed to helping our football players grow off the field as much as on the field. Derrick really impressed everyone he spent time with at Avila with his genuine approach to coaching and leading young men."

"I am ecstatic about the opportunity to be a head coach," Alexander said. "I have so many things that I want to do but I know it's going to take time. I am ready to get to work!"

A collegiate standout at the University of Michigan, Alexander was selected in the first round of the 1994 National Football League draft by the Cleveland Browns. He spent a decade in the highest level of professional football, including four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was given the team's Derrick Thomas Most Valuable Player Award and nominated for the NFL's prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2000.

Even after the conclusion of his playing career, Alexander has stayed closely connected to the NFL and to Kansas City, where his family has resided for more than two decades. Alexander has been part of the Chiefs Ambassadors since 2009, and was selected for the NFL's Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship three straight years, which enabled him to ply his trade as an assistant coach during training camp for three different teams, including the Chiefs in 2017. He also coached the wide receivers at the 2020 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Meanwhile, after a successful career as a player, Alexander had already begun the next phase of his career as a football coach. After spending the 2015 season at Wilmington College, Alexander returned to Kansas City to join the coaching staff at Avila University. In his three seasons at Avila he served as Wide Receivers Coach and Passing Game Coordinator, as well the Academic Coordinator and Director of Football Operations.

Alexander joined an Eagle program that didn't win a game in his first season as an assistant coach. But by his third season, in 2018, where he worked alongside former Avila head coach Marc Benavidez, the team had a 7-3 record, a top three finish in the conference, and three First Team All-Conference receivers and returners, Alexander's area of focus.

"When I began at Avila, I think we were better than our record showed. We had a good coaching staff that worked well together," Alexander said. "As the years passed, we got better and better."

Now Alexander returns to Avila after spending the 2022 season at Wayne State in his hometown of Detroit following three seasons at NCAA Division I Morgan State in Baltimore. But much has changed for Avila football since Alexander was last here: instead of joining a squad that won three games the season before, Alexander now takes over the helm of an Avila football program that has won two KCAC championships in three seasons, and in 2022 won a program record ten games and qualified for the NAIA Football Championship Series for the first time in team history.

"In my final season as an assistant at Avila we were 7-3, which was the best record in school history (at the time). I am fortunate to be taking over a team that has just won the conference and made its first playoff appearance. I am looking forward to keeping the momentum going," Alexander said.

Extending Avila football's recent track record of success would be no easy feat for any coach, but with his temperament, experience, connections and personality, Derrick Alexander emerged as the ideal candidate to take the reins of this immensely successful program. Avila football will begin its new era on August 26 against Bethany before Alexander and the Eagles take the field at The Z in Kansas City for the first time on September 2.

For all the latest news from across the Eagle Empire, stay tuned to Avila Athletics on social media as well as avilaathletics.com. For more information about this story and all 14 of Avila's varsity athletic programs, contact Sports Information Director Tim Hackett (timothy.hackett@avila.edu/919-333-7072).

Meet Coach Alexander courtesy of some photos from Wayne State: