Coach, now the athletic director, prizes work ethic and integrity in athletes over their stats
Photos courtesy of Baldwin Wallace: John Snell, an Albion native, brought lots of energy to sidelines as head coach of the Baldwin Wallace University football team. He led the team from 2002 to 2016, and now is the college’s Associate Director of Athletics.
By Levi Newell, senior Sport Management major at Baldwin Wallace University
Walking into Coach John Snell’s office at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, OH, there are many things to catch the eye.
There is a Baldwin Wallace (BW) football helmet lamp illuminating his office. There are various displays of the game, including a first-win football awarded to Coach Snell following his 22-2 win against Allegheny. There are portraits of Coach Snell with amazing athletes and coaches including the former long-time National Champion Ohio State football head coach Jim Tressel.
Snell also had more recent memorabilia in his current role as Associate Director of Athletics, including himself alongside the BW Division III College World Series baseball team. The most notable piece however was a nearly life-size portrait of himself actively coaching on the sidelines. Coaching the only way he knows how; emphatically cheering on his athletes with strong determination. It is not any one item but a combination of all these things that exposed the interior of what makes Coach Snell himself, which is a BW football legend.
Sitting down to speak with Coach Snell about his career there were many topics of conversation. We conversed over everything from the makings of his coaching career to the type of father, husband, and son he has become. Signs of humility and strong integrity immediately became apparent when spending time with him. His love for those around him and his former athletes exudes his character. He spoke highly of all the athletes he was privileged to coach. However, the most storied team to grace his coaching career came in 2003, a season that was pivotal to beginning to cement Coach Snell’s legacy.
John Patrick Snell, now 58, was raised in the village of Albion, New York. He was brought up with supportive and loving parents who instilled the value of hard work within him early on. (His parents, Peter and Irene Snell, owned a real estate business that is currently run by their son David.) As a child, John’s parents had strong expectations for him to do things the right way as they led successful lives despite their hardships early on.
John’s father would continuously remind him of his philosophy and mantra “work before play.” John adopted and applied this philosophy to his own life, which allowed him to create great opportunities for himself at a young age. John loved sports as a child primarily participating in baseball, football and wrestling. His parents would not only support him but also attend nearly all athletic events for his other three siblings, further showcasing their dedication to their children’s athletic endeavors.
Through his involvement in sports at Albion High School, he would unfortunately succumb to a serious broken left leg injury during his sophomore year in football. Because of this injury, John would miss the rest of the football season as well as the upcoming wrestling and baseball seasons during his tough recovery.
The injury ended his football career, but he continued to work at his other sports and began to strive in baseball. John would go on to follow in his brother David’s footsteps, working at the family business in Albion, and becoming a student-athlete at BW.
John participated in baseball for one year in 1984 lettering as a freshman. While at BW, John became Coach Snell, finding his first opportunities to test out the profession he would later pursue.
John Snell amassed a 92-60 career record at Baldwin Wallace, a .605 winning percentage.
In his four years, he gained experience coaching locally. He coached wrestling at Berea High School, baseball at Midpark High School and served as a student coach for BW football. Following graduation, Coach Snell would have coaching stints at the University of Rochester, Rutgers University, and the University of Buffalo, where he would meet his wife Shelly, before returning to his alma mater in 1996. He would serve as an assistant coach before being promoted to Assistant Head Coach and then interim Head Coach in 2002. Serving as legendary Head Coach Bob Packard’s right-hand man, Coach Snell would learn valuable lessons in coaching and come to respect the winningest coach in BW history.
Coach Snell commented on Coach Packard and his impact on his coaching career, “Coach Packard was essentially Lee Tressel’s right-hand man, and he did a phenomenal job of carrying on the tradition, carrying on the legacy of great coaches. He was a great mentor for me, and he never had a losing season as a head coach… One of the greatest lessons that I learned from him was that you can’t allow the highs to be too high and the lows to be too low. He was very even-keel and I think that served him very well.”
In Coach Packard’s final three years, his teams would go 6-4 each season with room to improve. Baldwin Wallace football was not nationally relevant for his final seven years since winning a share of the conference title in 1994. With upcoming talent, and the team wanting to achieve more, Coach Snell would get his opportunity to shine.
2002 marked the year that Coach Snell would take over the reins as head coach, at least momentarily. Although he was chosen amongst his staff to act as head coach, he would still need to be evaluated following the end of the season and participate in a formal interviewing process to earn the honor of full-time head coach.
Dan Larlham, quarterback for BW (2001-2003) stated, “Having that interim title tagged to him I think only made him work harder. It lit a fire under him knowing that he needed to prove himself, and he did.”
That season Coach Snell would lead the Yellow Jackets football team to a sterling 8-2 record, with their only losses to Mount Union and John Carroll each just by one touchdown. Despite the successful season Mount Union would continue on their historic undefeated run and keep BW out of the playoffs. John Carroll would also be invited as an at-large bid to compete nationally. Coach Snell quickly solidified himself as the man for the job and with support from his staff and players would win the job as full-time head coach.
Dan Larlham recalls a diner with former BW President Mark Collier, “I was at a diner with Collier, the president at the time and I remember telling him, Coach Snell, this is my guy.”
John Snell said he values the relationships with his players, and stays in contact with them after they graduate.
With full team support and a great host of returning players, Coach Snell hoped to continue his success in making BW football nationally relevant once again. The 2003 season was a perfect storm for just that. The special group would work early and often in the gym during the offseason and hone in on their craft. They held strong expectations for themselves and most importantly had shown that they were truly up to the task in that 2002 season. They were close to where they wanted to be but had some unfinished business to attend to.
“It was a group of guys that I think were really hungry to be successful,” Coach Snell recalled. “The year before they came to us and said, ‘We want to get this thing back to where we feel it’s nationally competitive.’ They were driven to be a team that competes for the conference championship and hopefully get a national playoff berth and that’s exactly what they did.”
Above the level of determination and skill of this particular team, many great leaders upheld the values of the team and strove to make everybody better. Captains for the 2003 season included Dan Larlham on offense and Tom DeLuca on defense. Having just two captains was something special for this team as it allowed them to rally together as a unit. Other great players would step up in their roles not as captains but rather as fantastic leaders such as Rob Becker, Jeff Fox, and Nate Mitchell. Coach Snell believed in and encouraged his guys to lead regardless of status so that he could create a more well-rounded group dynamic.
Athletes were encouraged to learn about each of their teammates, thus creating a culture of truly caring for one another. This allowed them to go into each week of competition with the best sense of teamwork, ultimately leading to a near-perfect on-field record of 9-1. BW’s only blemish was an early Week 2 loss against Mount Union. They would shut out bitter rival John Carroll in Week 4 and continue to blow out opponents the entire season, their closest win being by two possessions against Ohio Northern.
Their offensive prowess allowed them to put up a large number of points week in and week out, and their complimentary defense ultimately held their opponents to fewer points taking care of business throughout the season. Following the regular season, a watch party in the Lee Tressel lounge of the Lou Higgins Center revealed that BW would make the Division III National Playoffs as an at-large bid. They would go on to win at home in the playoffs for the first time in a long while, beating Hanover 54-32. The following week they would leave for Chicago to face Wheaton where they would fall short just four points away from advancing again.
The 2003 season was a special year for the Yellow Jackets. The ability to perform at a high level brought BW back to national relevancy where it had struggled to be for a while. The success of this team was a great testament to the excellence of Coach Snell. This would be his and the program’s last playoff win and appearance with Mount Union continuing their dominance to this day. Coach Snell throughout his storied career would reach a record of 92-60 overall with a .605 winning percentage. He would go on to coach many great athletes including 122 All-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) and 102 Academic All-OAC players. With all these accolades and accomplishments as head coach, Coach Snell has made a case for himself regarding his BW legacy. But his success on the field was simply a product of how he conducted and established himself as a great leader, mentor, and father figure to so many.
Rob Becker, former player and current Director of Campus Recreation and Athletic Facilities at BW, “Coaching is one part of the legacy, it’s what else you do outside of the coaching and how you impact people that actually allows that legacy to be better.”
Dan Larlham stated, “He certainly sent guys into the Hall of Fame, into the record books, and reestablished BW as a national competitor. But the relationships he keeps with his players make him second to none.”
A cheerleader in life, Coach Snell has allowed great opportunities for his players to set the foundation for a great life. In his athletes, he instilled core values of faith, integrity, caring for others, and doing things the right way. Coach Snell contributed, and still does as Associate Director of Athletics, to a friendly family-type culture that so many people find at BW.
Coach Snell likened coaching to parenting in that, “My hope for them, first and foremost, that we have taught them the importance of having God in their life. And second I hope we taught them the importance of being a person of integrity, a person with great work ethic and a great attitude. I hope they know and understand and feel that they are loved by their parents.”
These characteristics displayed by Coach Snell were brought into his career knowing that these values could allow for success on and off the field for his athletes. In building and maintaining a positive team culture he truly solidified himself as one of the great football coaches of BW. Not only has he impacted others through his coaching career but extending himself to all sports and athletes in his current role leaving a long-lasting positive effect on BW both athletically and culturally.
When people talk of the great football coaches of BW, such as Ray Watts, Eddie Finnigan, Lee Tressel, and Bob Packard, they ought to, and likely soon will, begin mentioning John Snell at that same level.
As a BW football legend.
