Former University of St. Francis defensive lineman Joe Curry returned to his alma mater to take over as the program’s defensive coordinator in the fall of 2005. Curry also tutored the linebackers from 2005 through 2009 and will oversee the Saints’ defensive linemen for the second straight season.

Curry shared the MSFA/Midwest League Assistant Coach of the Year award following USF’s 7-4 season in 2008.

Curry played for the Saints from 1998-2000, earning All-Mid-States Football Association second-team accolades as a senior after gaining honorable mention All-Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference status in 1998.

A team captain in 2000, Curry was selected as USF’s best defensive lineman that year as well as in 1998. 

For his career with the Saints, he posted 168 tackles (71 solo, 97 assisted), 15 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.

Prior to enrolling at St. Francis, Curry attended Indiana State University for two years.  After redshirting in 1996, he played in three games for the Sycamores the following season and made nine tackles.

Upon completing his playing career, Curry entered the coaching ranks, beginning as a defensive line coach for the Saints in 2001.  He then ventured to Ferris State University (MI) for the next three seasons, where he coached the defensive line, recruited and served as the travel coordinator.

An Aurora Central Catholic High School graduate, Curry was a Chicago Sun-Times and Illinois High School Football Coaches Association all-state selection his senior year as well as a member of the All-Private School League team in each of his three varsity seasons with the Chargers.  He also claimed first-team all-area recognition from the Aurora Beacon News twice and established a school record with his 342 career tackles.

Curry earned a bachelor’s degree in education with a concentration in history from USF before gaining a master’s in education administration from Ferris State.

He and his wife, Holly, and sons Connor (2) and Cooper (1) reside in Joliet.

Dan Cepek joined the USF coaching staff in 2010 and will again assist defensive coordinator Joe Curry with the Saints’ defensive line. He will also work closely with special teams coordinator Tom Sallay.

Cepek spent the previous nine years coaching at the high school level at football powerhouses Driscoll Catholic and St. Rita.

He spent eight years at Driscoll and was part of a staff that directed the Highlanders to seven straight Illinois state championships from 2001-07.  Driscoll’s streak was snapped in the quarterfinals in 2008 and the school closed following that academic year in the spring of 2009. Cepek tutored the linebackers and special teams in his first four years at Driscoll and then was the assistant head coach and special teams’ coordinator for his last four years.

In 2009, Cepek joined the staff at St. Rita where he coached the Mustangs’ linebackers. St. Rita captured the Chicago Prep Bowl title at the conclusion of that season.

Will Cinelli enters his third season as a member of the USF coaching staff and will work with both the Saints’ running backs and tight ends in 2011.

Cinelli completed his Bachelor of Science degree in the highly regarded Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in the spring of 2010.  He is currently enrolled in graduate school at St. Francis.  A native of Paeonian Springs, Va., Cinelli was a staff member of WNUR-FM, the student-run radio station at Northwestern. He has served as Web Director for the station and handled play-by-play duties for Northwestern softball and women’s basketball broadcasts. He also anchored morning and evening newscasts and provided color commentary on men’s basketball broadcasts. Cinelli was part of the broadcast team that covered NU’s national championship match win in women’s lacrosse in 2009.

Cinelli served as play-by-play announcer for the Alaska Goldpanners in the Alaskan Summer Collegiate Baseball League in 2008. He also served an internship at ESPN Radio Boston in the summer of 2007.

Veteran coach Mike Curry begins his second season on the USF staff and will work with the Saints’ safeties.  Curry, the retired head coach from Aurora Central Catholic High School, is the father of Saints’ defensive coordinator Joe Curry.

Curry spent  23 (1987-2009) years as the head coach at Aurora Central Catholic and was the head coach at Freeport Aquin Central Catholic High for the nine (1978-86) years prior to that.  Curry directed Aurora Central Catholic to the state playoffs seven times in his tenure there and posted 10 or more wins on two occasions (11-1 in 1991 and 10-3 in 1994).

Curry led Freeport Aquin to a 68-26 record and two state championships in his nine-year run. The Bulldogs captured those Class 1A titles in 1981 and 1986.

Curry and his wife Liane have three sons – Tom (35), Joe (33) and Bill (31) – and daughter Marci (30).  Mike and Liane are also the proud grandparents of seven.

Jeff Knowles, a former Saints player and a USF graduate, joined the USF coaching staff in 2008 and will tutor the Saints’ linebackers for the second straight year in 2011 after working with the defensive line in his first two seasons.

Knowles is a former high school teammate of head coach Mike Uremovich at Providence Catholic High School. The two were key players on the Celtics’ perfect 14-0 state championship squad in 1994.  Knowles was a first-team all-state linebacker on that Matt Senffner-coached club.

Knowles began his coaching career as an assistant to Senffner at Providence in 2004.

Knowles earned his Master’s degree in education in 2010 from St. Francis.

He is a native of nearby Manhattan, Ill.  Knowles and his wife Sarah are the parents of two sons, Gannon (4) and Emmett (1).

Clayton Norberg, a first-team All-America linebacker at University of St. Francis as a senior in 2008, returns to his alma mater this fall to join Mike Uremovich's coaching staff.

Norberg was a four-year starter for the Saints and a four-time All-MSFA/Midwest League selection. He was named first team as a senior in 2008, second team in 2007 and to the honorable mention list as both a sophomore and a freshman.

The native of Sterling, Ill., led the Saints in tackles during all four years of his collegiate career. He became just the fifth first-team All-American in St. Francis history and the first since the 1993 season.

Norberg spent the past two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Midwest League rival William Penn. He coached both the linebackers and the safeties during his time in Oskaloosa and helped the Statesmen claim a share of the league title last season.

Norberg graduated from USF in 2009 and earned his master's degree from William Penn this past spring. He and his fiancée Laura Gosewisch, a former USF women's soccer player, plan to be married next March 17.

Tom Sallay begins his sixth season of college coaching at USF and will work with the cornerbacks this season after tutoring the safeties for several years for head coach Mike Uremovich.  He will also continue to coordinate and oversee USF’s special teams.

Sallay came to USF after spending the previous four years coaching football and baseball at Bloom Township High School in Chicago Heights. Sallay served as head sophomore football coach from 2003-2005 and head sophomore basketball coach from 2002-2006. Prior to going to Bloom, he spent one year as the head freshman baseball coach at Lincoln-Way Central High School.  Sallay began his coaching career at Highland High School in Ewing, Mo., while he was attending school and playing football at NAIA member Culver-Stockton College (MO).

A 1997 graduate of Thornton Fractional North High School, Sallay earned his B.A. in education from Culver-Stockton in 2001.  He and his wife, Alex, reside in Joliet.

Erick Ware enters his second season on the St. Francis coaching staff and will work with the Saints’ corps of wide receivers.

Ware came to USF after spending the 2009 season as the defensive line coach at NCAA Division II Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo. In addition to coaching the linemen, Ware also served as the Blue Tigers’ assistant strength and conditioning coach. Ware coached two linemen who received All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association postseason honors.

Prior to moving to Lincoln, the Chicago native coached at three Chicago-area high schools and also a suburban Chicago junior college.

He was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Chicago’s Dunbar Academy for two seasons (2007 and ’08) and tutored six players who earned All-Public League recognition.  He coached at Dyett High School in 2006 and began his coaching career back in 2002 at Morton High School in suburban Cicero.

In between his stops at Morton and Dyett, Ware spent the 2004 and ’05 seasons as linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator at College of DuPage in suburban Glen Ellyn.

Ware also worked as a coaching intern with the Washington Redskins in the summer of 2006. He also continues to serve as the director of the Chicago Public League Football Coaches Association Clinic, a duty he has held since 2007.

Ware graduated from Millikin University in Decatur in 2003 and is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in education at Chicago State.

Former Saint defensive back Mike Woodward begins his first season of college coaching at USF and will work with the secondary this season.

Woodward was a four-year letterman for the Saints, working his way up from a special teams' performer as a freshman in 2006 to a starting role on last year's 7-4 USF club that narrowly missed sharing the MSFA/Midwest League championship and going to the NAIA playoffs for just the second time in the program's history. Woodward finished his senior season with 32 total tackles.

Woodward played high school football at Marian Catholic High School prior to enrolling at USF.  He graduated from USF in 2011 and is currently teaching math and history at Grundy Alternative School in Morris.

Ron Novak joins the USF coaching staff this season and will primarily be used in a recruiting capacity.

Novak has spent the past 10 years on the football coaching staff at Providence Catholic High School in nearby New Lenox. He served as the Director of Football Operations and Co-Director of the Youth Summer Camps and Youth Coaches' Clinic in the 2007 season for the Celtics. He has spent most of his time at Providence tutoring the running backs and helped direct the 2004 team to the Illinois 6A championship.

Novak also has served as an assistant track and field (jumps) and girls basketball coach at Providence in recent years. He also co-founded the Providence Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.