In 2011, Rob Tattersall looked at some of the larger-than-average boys in his son Robby’s first-grade class at Wilmington Friends School and envisioned a state football championship one day.
Eleven years later – on Dec. 10, 2022 – that day arrived.
Led by 11 seniors, including eight from that precocious first-grade class, Friends won its first state football title since 1984.
The Quakers outlasted Caravel 10-7 in the DIAA Class 2A championship game at Delaware Stadium, completing a 13-0 season.
It was so special that Wilmington Friends football won the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association’s vote as the state’s Team of the Year for 2022. The Quakers will be honored at the annual DSBA banquet on Feb. 20, at a site to be announced.
“I’m still getting emails, texts, phone calls, handwritten letters,” said Rob Tattersall, Friends’ head coach. “Just congratulating us, from people far and wide. Even people that have no affiliation with Friends School. They are moved to write a letter and they mail it to the school.
“It’s touching and moving that us winning a state championship brought joy to so many people, at so many different levels.”
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It touched every level of the Tattersall family.
Robby Tattersall grew into a 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior who was the Class 2A Offensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-Class 2A selection at quarterback and defensive end.
His 6-4 brother Ryan, a sophomore, played a key role at defensive back and also saw some time at quarterback.
After 53 seasons and 331 wins, Bob Tattersall – the state’s all-time leader in coaching victories – transitioned to associate head coach at Friends before this season. He was still on the sideline for every snap.
His son, Rob, took over as head coach. So three generations of Tattersalls – who have been involved with Friends football since 1968 – were able to hoist the trophy.
“It means so much. Being at Wilmington Friends, we’ve all been together since first grade,” Robby Tattersall, who rushed for 117 yards and passed for 105 and a touchdown, said immediately after the championship game. “It’s been a journey, and I wouldn’t have done it with any other team.
“I’m so thankful because everybody sacrificed so much for the team’s success. My grandfather, my dad, my brother, everybody put so much into it.”
Bob Tattersall coached the Quakers to a Division II state title in 1984. Rob later played for his father, then sensed something special about Robby and his classmates when they started school.
“I was like, ‘He’s going to be this position; he’s going to be that position,’” Rob said with a laugh. I’ve kind of been working for this over a lot of years. But you didn’t know how they were going to grow up and what they were going to develop into.
“I’d say at the end of last football season, we had a thought we could be pretty good. Just based off of who was coming back and what they had grown into.”
Of course, he had to get some of them interested in the sport first.
“I had to plant the seed with a lot of parents to convince their kids that you know what, I think he should play football,” Rob said. “They all didn’t see themselves as football players as little kids, and their parents didn’t all see them as football players.
“I had to do some convincing, but it all worked out for the best. Everybody is very happy right now.”
The Quakers were coming off a 10-2 season in 2021 when they lost a 24-21 heartbreaker to eventual 13-0 state champion Archmere and fell 24-14 to Woodbridge in the Class 2A semifinals.
They were projected to be very good in 2022, and they were.
Friends only trailed once during the regular season, down 9-7 at halftime against then-No. 1 Archmere on Oct. 1. The Quakers left no doubt in the second half, winning 34-9.
They outscored their 10 regular-season opponents 367-59, then dominated Lake Forest 49-12 in the 2A quarterfinals.
“We simulated a lot of situations,” Rob said. “We tried to visualize being down in games. It was really everybody staying focused and staying in the moment.”
That paid off in the final two games when things got tighter – as expected.
The Quakers were scoreless at halftime on a cold, muddy night at St. Mark’s in the semifinals, then scored two third-quarter touchdowns to win 14-0.
Friends got off to a great start in the championship game, covering 86 yards on its opening drive and taking a 7-0 lead on Robby Tattersall’s 4-yard touchdown pass to 6-6 tight end Ishmael Dobson.
Then the Quakers forced a Caravel punt and put together an 18-play drive capped by Alessio Cristanetti-Walker’s 29-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
But Caravel, which also came into the game undefeated at 12-0, fought back. Truman Auwerda completed three passes on a fourth-quarter drive, and Jordan Miller’s 6-yard run pulled the Buccaneers within 10-7 with 6:46 to play.
Caravel got a final chance but had to start at its own 7 with 2:28 remaining. The Bucs completed a short pass, but on the next play, Friends junior Andrew McKenzie intercepted to clinch the Quakers’ first football championship in 38 years.
“The ball, I guess it found me. I don’t know,” McKenzie said. “I was in the right spot at the right time.”
The Quakers have been euphoric ever since. Especially the Tattersalls.
“During the season, I had blinders on. I didn’t think about how I was coaching with my father and coaching my kids,” Rob said. “Now that it’s over, it has really sunk in.
“I know a lot of guys have coached their kids, but not a lot have won a state championship with their kids. And to have my father working with me, the guy who taught me football being by my side, it’s as special as it gets. It’s really deep, how moving it has been.”
Moving enough to be named Delaware’s Team of the Year.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ
