Football coach resigns at Delaware high school facing player shortage with opener looming

Delaware high school football already has a coaching change before the first games of the 2024 season have even been played.

And the school where it occurred is in danger of not having enough players for its opener.

Zach Horstmyer has resigned as coach at the Early College School of Delaware State University in Dover, one of the state’s smallest high schools.

Horstmyer, entering his second season, stepped down as coach and as a health and physical education teacher due to dissatisfaction with the school administration, he said.

“We had different visions of what was needed to have a varsity program,” he said, “and we had different visions of where we were headed in the near future.”

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Horstmyer was particularly upset, he said, that the school has not hired an athletic trainer.

“The first day of camp we had some injuries, and there’s no one there [to provide medical attention],” he said.

Attempts to reach school administrators have so far been unsuccessful.

The school has a rather ambitious football opener slated Aug. 29 at Delaware Military Academy, which is now in doubt. Planned scrimmages against Glasgow and McKean were canceled.

ECS practices and plays at Drass Field on the former Wesley College campus now owned by DSU. But the school has had difficulty in its three years of varsity football, going 1-27 despite competing in DIAA Class 1A, which is made up of similar smaller schools with less recent football success.

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The Hornets’ lone win was 38-6 in their 2023 opener against A.I. du Pont, which was resurrecting football after being forced itself to shut down its team due to lack of players in 2022.

But ECS did have to forfeit its last two games in 2023 due to a player shortage from an original roster of 27 names. Some students became academically ineligible after report cards from the first marking period came out.

Horstmyer, a former Brandywine High player and Cape Henlopen assistant coach, had expressed concern at the Delaware Online High School Football Media Day on Aug. 7 that ECS may again not have enough players to field a football team. ECS draws students from throughout the state, adding to the difficulty of building a team, especially in preseason practice when buses are not running, he said.

Some expected returnees this year instead transferred to other schools. Only 15 players had taken part in the team’s first practice, including several eighth graders. They are permitted to play varsity because ECS has grades 7 through 12 in the same building.

“They’re still trying to have a team,” Horstmyer said. “They still want to play a varsity schedule. I don’t know if that’s doable.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Football coach resigns at Delaware high school facing player shortage with opener looming