Bio

Derek Woodley is in his 16th season at the helm of the Defiance College baseball program in 2023. Now in his 30th year of coaching at the collegiate level, Woodley took over as head coach during the 2007-08 academic year and has served as DC's athletic director since 2019.

During his 15 years with DC, Woodley has become one of two Yellow Jacket head coaches to surpass 150 career wins, a two-time HCAC Coach of the Year and has guided the program to two of three total HCAC Tournament berths. Woodley has seen 66 players named All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference while also placing 32 student-athletes on the Tom Bohlsen Academic All-HCAC squad.

The 2019 campaign had Woodley guiding DC to the program's second-most wins (23) in school history and led Defiance to an HCAC Tournament berth, it's first since 2013. The Purple and Gold finished 23-16-1 overall, tying for third place in the conference with a 10-8 record. Seeded fourth, the Yellow Jackets made a deep tournament run after posting an opening-round 16-8 victory over Transylvania University before eliminating Anderson University in extra innings. DC finally bowed out to HCAC regular-season champion Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Defiance had five players earn All-HCAC recognition, the most since the 2013 campaign. Additionally, Woodley was selected as an HCAC Co-Coach of the Year. The 2019 Yellow Jackets set 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.

Following a nine-win improvement during the 2012 season, Woodley guided his 2013 Yellow Jackets to the program's third-most wins (20) in school history and led his club to its first HCAC Tournament appearance in the HCAC era with a 13-11 mark in conference play. DC lost a pair of one-run games against top-seeds Manchester University and Anderson in the tournament. That 2013 squad finished with eight All-HCAC honorees, a record for Defiance, and Woodley was tabbed HCAC Co-Coach of the Year.

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

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

Before arriving at DC, he served as the assistant coach at Manchester for two years. During his stint at MU, 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 championship.

Prior to coaching at Manchester, Woodley spent 12 seasons at Bethany Lutheran College in Minnesota, where he accumulated a 141-90 overall record. At Bethany Lutheran, Woodley guided his teams to three league titles and a couple of regional championships while garnering National Junior College Athletic Association Region XIII Coach-of-the-Year accolades twice during a six-year stint as the Vikings’ head coach. He was also an assistant at Bethany Lutheran for six seasons before taking over the reins of the program and saw the club claim four league titles and three regional crowns during that time.

Along with an extensive coaching background, Woodley has served as the intramural director at Defiance, Manchester and Bethany Lutheran, as well as the athletic director at BLC for more than two years. Woodley had also been an interim athletic director for the Yellow Jackets.

Woodley worked as a part-time scout for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2000-04 and served as a coach in the Northwoods League for the Mankato Mashers and Mankato Moondogs from 2000-03.