(gentle ethereal music) - [Coach Duda] When I was 10 years old, we used to watch the NFL football games.

My father, my brother, Steve, and I in our living room, and I was 10.

I looked at my father one day and said, "Dad, you know, I'm gonna play in the NFL."

And instead of my dad dismissing me which he didn't do, he said, "Well, you know, you're just gonna have to work really, really hard."

Every birthday from my 10th birthday to my 18th, my birthday present were always weights.

Well, my father is the hardest working guy I've ever met, right?

So, he had two jobs.

You'll learn work ethic from people around you.

He didn't really know all the odds, the 88,000 to one.

He just thought, well, if his son worked really hard, he'd have an opportunity to do that.

(gentle inspirational music) - [Coach Duda] Lackawanna College before I got here, didn't have a football team.

They had decided, 1993, to have one, but had no equipment or field, or locker room, or a weight room or a dorm.

Well, I got here kind of by chance when I saw an ad in the paper that Lackawanna Junior College was starting a football program.

So, I sent my application in and I was defensive coordinator the first year of the program.

Then second year, I became the head football coach.

Come on, let's go!

(solemn music) So, when I first got here, my intention was to be here for two or three years, get the knowledge base I needed and then move on to other places.

And then, it became more than that.

(spirited energetic music) I try to be on hand with my players all the time, right?

My wife always says it all the time.

She goes, "Jesus, Mark, you know, you spend a whole lot of time with those guys."

I said, "Well, I do."

I said, because I think your time is the most valuable thing you have as a coach.

Most of our student athletes, you know, didn't do a great job, academically, in high school or were overlooked from a coaching standpoint from football.

So, they need us to make their life go forward.

Back up!

Let's go!

It's all about us creating an environment that is gonna make them succeed.

And we are extremely tough on 'em, here.

- [Coach Duda] Hurry up!

I firmly believe the best thing we can do for them is to hold 'em accountable in the classroom, on the field, right?

In the weight room, in the dorm.

(football players cheering) I don't accept "C" work from "A" players.

What you learn is this, that the most talented don't always succeed.

I have seen more talented people than I get cut.

Here's what they never understood, okay?

That consistency, right?

That doing the same thing every single day at the same time, right, allows you to succeed.

I was a 92nd pick in a draft.

No one could tell me in 1983 that I was a 92nd best football player in America.

No one could say that to me 'cause that's a boldface line.

But I might have been just a little more focused than some of those other ones.

And let me last a little bit longer.

(gentle pensive music) People asked me many, many times like, why I stayed here, "Wouldn't you rather coach in the League?"

And I said, "Well, what kind of difference can I make in the League?"

Right?

A 24-year-old guy who's going into a second contract knows how to work out or he knows how to weight train, he knows how to be a football player.

How much do I really help him?

These kids, these young guys who are 17 and 18.

How about somebody who doesn't have a complete nuclear family?

We can help them a lot.

We can change their life.

If you don't know everything, X's and O's wise, you can learn them.

You cannot learn to love your players.

Either you do or you don't.

I do.

Christmas morning, my phone rings a bunch of times, right?

And it's from kids who I have who are full, grown men now, wishing me a Merry Christmas and means the world to me.

We've had 600 Division One players since I've been here.

Six hundred is quite an accomplishment as far as moving people's lives forward.

And that's why I stayed.

(football players clapping) - [Football Players] One, two, three!

C, C, C!

Gotta find out!

(whistle blows) (gentle pensive music)