Bio

Derek Woodley was named director of athletics in the fall of 2019 to go along with his duties as head baseball coach.

Woodley will be in his 14th season in 2022 at the helm of the Yellow Jacket baseball program and is just the second coach in the history of the program to surpass 150 career wins.

In his 13 seasons with the Yellow Jackets, Woodley has seen 63 DC players named to the All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Team, while also placing 26 student-athletes on the HCAC All-Academic squad.

Woodley guided the Yellow Jackets to the program's second-most wins (23) in school history and led Defiance to an HCAC Tournament birth, the first since the 2013 season. The Purple and Gold made a deep Tournament run after posting an opening-round 16-8 victory over Transylvania before eliminating Anderson in extra innings. DC bowed out to HCAC regular season Champion Rose-Hulman. Defiance landed five All-HCAC recognitions, the most since the 2013 season. Woodley was also recognized by the HCAC for the accomplishments of the 2019 season as he was selected HCAC Co-Coach of the Year for the second time (2013). 

Following a nine-win improvement during the 2012 campaign, Woodley guided the Yellow Jackets to the programs third-most wins (20) in school history and led Defiance to its first HCAC Tournament appearance in the HCAC-era with a 13-11 mark in conference play. The Yellow Jackets lost a pair of one-run games against top-seeded Manchester and Anderson in the tournament. The team finished with eight All-HCAC recognition, a record for Defiance. 

In 2012, Woodley led DC to 15 total victories and eight wins in conference play. Defiance ended the year with a 7-6 clip over its final 13 outings and closed the bounce-back season with a three-game sweep at Mount St. Joseph.

Defiance has raised its win total from the previous season in six of the 10 years, including the 18-win showing in 2016 that marked the program’s highest win total in a single season since 1999 until the 2019 campaign earned five more victories.

The improvements have also shown up in the record books, as Woodley led the Jackets to new all-time single-season records for the program in at-bats, hits, doubles, innings pitched, putouts, assists, and fielding percentage, before setting another new record with 339.0 innings pitched and 1,014 putouts in 2019.

Woodley has worked hard to lay the foundation for a successful baseball program at Defiance College and has used his avid recruiting skills to consistently add depth and athleticism to the roster, while nearly doubling the squad size since coming to DC.

Along with bolstering the roster and making numerous upgrades to DC’s baseball facilities, Woodley has also implemented an active camp schedule for local youth and high school prospects during the summer and winter months.

Woodley has 22 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level and most recently served as the assistant coach at Manchester College prior to accepting his current position at DC.

During his stint at Manchester, Woodley helped guide the Spartans to a pair of appearances in the HCAC Tournament in 2006 and 2007 in addition to claiming a Midwest Regional Title.

Prior to coaching at MC, Woodley spent 12 seasons at Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota where he accumulated a 141-90 record, while winning three league titles, a pair of regional championships and two NJCAA Region XIII Coach-of-the-Year honors during a six-year stint as the Vikings’ head coach. Woodley was also an assistant at Bethany Lutheran for six seasons before taking over the reins of the program and saw the team win four league titles and three regional crowns during that time.

Along with an extensive coaching background, Woodley has served as the intramural director at Bethany Lutheran, Manchester and Defiance and was also the athletic director at Bethany Lutheran for over two full years. Woodley also served as the co-interim athletic director at Defiance during the 2009-2010 year.

Woodley worked as a part-time scout for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2000-2004 and served as a coach in the Northwoods League for the Mankato Mashers and Mankato Moondogs from 2000-2003.