Former Section 4 coach shares success of Delaware football power through e-book
Former Elmira Southside head coach Tony Marks has coached football for 45 years, including the last nine as a volunteer assistant alongside son Mike at Smyrna High School in Delaware.
With a writing assist from Mike and help from others, Tony has written an e-book titled "Unstoppable" that is available through publisher Championship Productions' website: championshipproductions.com. Cost is $39.99.
Football knowledge trumped writing background when it came time for Tony and son to put this together.
"I’m not a writer, never have been, could never have dreamed that I would write a book," Tony said. "But when you have something to say, and something good to present, the words came very easily and I was able to literally write the book in about 60 days."
The e-book is focused on the development of Smyrna's offensive philosophy dating back to 2015, when Tony joined the staff alongside Mike, the offensive coordinator, and head coach Mike Judy. Mike became part of Judy's staff a year prior.
With four state championships in an eight-season period from 2015 to 2022 at a program that went 10 years without a winning season before the Judy era, Tony was keen to share keys to success for a Smyrna program that has perplexed defenses with the combination of a spread offense and its more physical earthquake unit. The tagline of the e-book is "integrating the earthquake package into the spread offense."
Tony, 68, started writing in January of 2023 and Mike provided writing and editing contributions for a publication that has the advantage of offering video to back up words.
"When you have something to say and you’re pretty sure how to say it, the words generally tend to flow. That’s what happened," Tony said. "I was literally writing a chapter a day for two straight months and Mike was contributing to help me as well. Then we took what was written and included a whole bunch of video in it because we wanted it to be an e-book for the purpose of people being able to look at video."
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Chance to work with son 'goes beyond words'
Tony is a Philadelphia native who played defensive back at Ithaca College from 1974 to 1976. He was varsity coach at Southside from 1987 to 1996 and prior to that head coach for three years at Oneonta High School and five at Newfield. Before moving to the Delaware coastal town of Lewes with wife Nancy in October of 2014, he helped the Corning Hawks and Elmira Express as an assistant.
Mike, who put up big numbers as a receiver at Southside in the late 1990s, also played his college ball at Ithaca. He is a teacher at Smyrna, which is about 50 miles from Philadelphia.
With Mike as offensive coordinator, Smyrna has averaged 37 points per game wjhile posting an .822 winning percentage. Tony coaches the receivers and his primary focus is to coordinate the team's earthquake package.
Tony has cherished the opportunity to work alongside his son and now to work together on "Unstoppable."
"That goes beyond words, really," Tony said. "We’ve had such a strong bond over the years and coaching with him has been as good as any father could ask for in his life. He’s done such a great job as the offensive coordinator down there."
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Why share with other coaches?
An obvious question becomes why would you share secrets to success with potential opponents? The answer is it's more common than you might think.
"In every sport, clinics are designed for this purpose," Tony said. "It's big business in sports. ... Right now going into the football clinic season in January, February and March, there are probably 50 clinics in the Northeast that football coaches attend. Those football coaches share their knowledge to help coaches get better, help younger coaches learn and help more experienced coaches see new philosophies.
"It's not unique to football. I think you see it at every level."
That mindset is reflected in the e-book, which Tony described as a gigantic challenge, that was made easier with help from a number of people who are thanked in the acknowledgments.
"Everyone from my daughter, who did the actual graphics on the book, to our offensive line coaches, to the assistant superintendent of schools to Mike Judy," Tony said. "A lot of people came in to help us with video and other types of things. It was an incredible cooperative effort."
Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Tony Marks, son write e-book chronicling Smyrna football offense
