Dave Opfar

Head Coach - Sixth Season

Penn State - '83
E-mail coach: dopfar@francis.edu

Saint Francis head football coach Dave Opfar enters his sixth season at the helm of the Red Flash with a talented and youthful squad. While his offense will have some new weapons after much of its record-setting personnel graduated, the defense appears to be the program’s best in several years. Opfar has the Red Flash on their way to achieving its first winning season in 14 years.

            When Opfar came to Loretto, he inherited a program that had lost 23 consecutive games and had a roster of 73 players. He enters 2007 with around 90 players heading into preseason workouts, and several of those players have the ability to be all-Northeast Conference honorees.

            Opfar, and his experienced staff of assistants, have assembled two of the best recruiting classes in program history to give hope for this year and beyond.

            The 2007 squad returns 10 of 11 starters from last year’s defense, including sack-leader Fehi Sevelo and leading tackler Andrew Ardestani. Just three starters return on offense (WR Antoine Rivera, LT Alexander Szoke-Benton and TE Brandon Bishop), but several players have played important roles in recent years and are ready to make an immediate impact as starters. Saint Francis’ special teams group looks to be the team’s best under Opfar’s watch. Senior placekicker Adam Sciulli has already set many of the school’s kicking records and looks to add to those totals in 2007, and return-men Anthony Richards, Jared Colmer, Calvin Williams and Rivera will have opposing teams on their heals.

            The Red Flash will enter their second full season at refurbished DeGol Field, and yet another phase in its reconstruction will take place this fall as preliminary work has begun on the south end zone field house.

            Throughout his career, both as a player and coach, Opfar has thrived in finding ways to enjoy success on the gridiron.  As a player, he captured a national championship at Penn State and two United States Football League titles with the Philadelphia Stars.  As a coach, Opfar has carved out a solid reputation within the collegiate ranks as a brilliant tactician on the defensive side of the ball. 

            Opfar became Saint Francis’ head football coach in December of 2001 after serving as defensive coordinator at Washington and Jefferson College for three seasons  (1999-2001).  During his stint at the Division III powerhouse, the

Presidents posted a record of 29-6.  Washington and Jefferson led the Presidents Athletic Conference (PAC) in fewest points allowed (11.5 ppg), pass defense (90.2 yards/game), turnover margin (+12) and sacks (35) in 2001.  The 11.5 points allowed/game ranked sixth in the nation.

            “Coach Opfar took an average defensive squad and turned it into one of the best units in the country,” said former Washington and Jefferson head coach and current Robert Morris assistant John Banaszak, who played on three of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ four Super Bowl teams and against Opfar in the USFL as a member of the Michigan Panthers.  “There is no doubt in my mind that he will build a winning program at Saint Francis.” 

            A starting defensive tackle on Penn State’s national championship team in 1982, Opfar was a two-year starter for the Nittany Lions before graduating in 1983.  He finished tied for seventh on the Nittany Lions' 1982 national championship squad with 46 tackles, including 33 solo stops and three sacks.  From there, it was on to the Philadelphia Stars and the USFL.  The Stars played in the USFL championship game in each of Opfar’s three seasons, winning league titles in 1984 and 1985.

            Following his USFL career, Opfar worked briefly as a counselor at a correctional facility for youths before signing a free agent contract with the Steelers in 1986.  He started three games for Pittsburgh during the National Football League players’ strike that year.

            At the conclusion of his season with the Steelers, Opfar played three years in the Arena Football League with the Pittsburgh Gladiators (1988), Albany Firebirds (1989) and San Antonio Force (1990).  After four years of collegiate action and seven seasons in the professional ranks, Opfar finally took off his helmet for good in 1990.  But it didn’t take long for him to move to the other side of the whistle.

            “I was coming home from San Antonio and had just gotten off the flight when an old roommate from Penn State, Pat Monroe, called me,” recalls Opfar.  “He had just gotten the job as head coach at Duquesne High School and asked me if I was done playing yet and if I wanted to coach.”

            After two seasons as Monroe's defensive coordinator at Duquesne High School, Opfar landed at Duquesne University, where he reunited with another former Penn State teammate, Greg Gattuso, the Dukes’ former head coach.  Opfar served as Duquesne’s defensive coordinator for two seasons and as an assistant for five years, helping the Dukes to two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championships in 1996 and 1997.

            From Duquesne, it was back to his alma mater as a graduate assistant coach working with Penn State’s offensive linemen.  After two years on Joe Paterno's staff, Opfar returned to Western Pennsylvania, landing at Washington and Jefferson.