Copyright Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
NEWPORT NEWS — Of the 241 football teams in Division III, only eight are undefeated as the calendar flips to the first weekend of November. Each has been around for at least half a century. Well, except for one. Christopher Newport University is 7-0 and ranked 14th nationally by d3football.com, 13th in the coaches’ poll. The Captains didn’t play their first season until 2001, and they immediately made history … but we’ll get to that. Saturday at TowneBank Stadium, the inaugural team will receive well-deserved recognition. Two of its players will serve as honorary captains for the coin toss prior to CNU’s 1 p.m. game against Montclair State. The team will be honored on the field at halftime. The older guy beaming like the proud papa he is will be Matt Kelchner, whose footprints are all over a program that has had 19 winning seasons (counting this one) in 25 chances. It all goes back to the fall of 2001, which is a story of its own. “You know, coaches always say ‘no one is my favorite, they’re all my favorites,’” said Kelchner, who retired after the 2016 season. “But that first season, that was my favorite and most fun I ever had in football — by far. We had a blast, and I loved those kids.” On Dec. 16, 1999, CNU’s Board of Visitors voted unanimously to establish a football team with a starting date targeted for 2001. Not quite five months later, Kelchner was hired away from William & Mary, where he had been an assistant coach for 16 years. Job one for Kelchner was assembling a staff. His first three hires were offensive coordinator Dan Antolik, defensive coordinator David Legg and defensive line/strength and conditioning coach Jonathan Dean. Antolik is now retired, and Legg is head coach at Hampton Roads Academy. Dean remains at CNU, where he is strength and conditioning coordinator for all sports. Then came the players. Of the 94 names on the roster, 87 were in-state. Forty-eight of those were from the 757, 51 if you include Gloucester just across the Coleman Bridge. “You’re blending a bunch of different folks from different backgrounds and different ages,” said Will Holt, an H-back from Franklin. “Bringing all those personalities together forced us to bond quickly.” Holt was one of 49 freshmen on that first roster. And, long before the transfer portal became a thing, there were a handful of transfers. The defense had two from Division I schools in linebacker Chris Linton (Maryland) and defensive back Anthony Matthews (Grambling). Strong safety Hosh Weekes came from Division II Lenoir-Rhyne. The offensive line was anchored by sophomore transfers Aaron “Big Country” Bennett (Gardner-Webb) and Jason “Big Red” Wills (Greensboro College). Joined by freshmen Lorenzo Thompson, Tommy Fitzgerald and Bryan Solomon, the line had an average size of 6-foot-2, 277 pounds. “Big, tough, mean and nasty,” Kelchner said with pride. The defensive front featured freshmen Orlando Holmes, Ian Vincent and Jason Chandler. In 2002, Tyrell Veney switched over from receiver to defensive end, where he excelled. “We called them the Four Horsemen,” Kelchner said. “Fast, physical, unbelievable.” There also were a few players who had never put on a chinstrap before. One was Josh Birch, a three-sport athlete (basketball, baseball, cross country) at Denbigh Baptist Christian. “We didn’t have a football team, and my mom didn’t let me play when I was little,” said Birch, who enrolled in 1999. “I wanted to try out for baseball at CNU and spent all summer throwing, but then I got tendinitis. “I joined the track team, but I didn’t enjoy it. Then, when I found out they were getting a football team, I figured I’d give that a try.” Listed as a wide receiver, Birch contributed mostly on special teams, although he did catch two passes as a senior in 2003. On Sept. 1, 2001, with 6,135 witnesses at what was then called CNU Stadium, the Captains played their inaugural game against Salisbury University. Freshman Kaveh Conaway scored the program’s first touchdown on a 74-yard run, but that was it for the offense in a 21-6 loss. The following week, the Captains lost 26-10 at Randolph-Macon. They were to play Bridgwater the following Saturday, Sept. 15, but that was canceled after the events of Sept. 11. CNU ended up having 20 days between their second and third games. Images of the New York City Twin Towers collapsing still fresh, CNU hosted Shenandoah on Sept. 29. The Captains led 14-3 at halftime but ended up losing 27-24 in overtime. That dropped CNU to 0-3. A week later came a trip to Greensboro College, which was off to a 3-1 start. The date was Oct. 6 — way too late, in Kelchner’s mind, to hold picture day. “Before the game, we’re on the field warming up and Greensboro is up in the bleachers yucking it up getting their team picture taken,” he said. “I blew the whistle and brought them all together. “I said, ‘Look at those guys!’ I got them going, and the kids went crazy. ‘We’re gonna kill these guys!’” Conaway scored two touchdowns, the first an 85-yard punt return, and the defense forced four turnovers in a 35-10 throttling. And just like that, the Captains couldn’t lose. They won their next four games, capped by a 14-11 victory over Ferrum College for the Dixie Conference championship. And in a history-making moment, CNU became the first start-up program ever to make the NCAA playoffs. The reward was a game at Widener (Pa.) University, which was 10-0 and thoroughly ticked about not being a No. 1 seed. The Pioneers took it out on CNU, and the Cinderella story ended with a 56-7 loss. The Captains’ final record of 5-4 was, honestly speaking, far better than most had expected. “I had friends and family warn me, ‘It’s a start-up program, it might take y’all years to ever win a game,’” Holt said. “But that team was pretty special in how it all came together. We turned it around and made some history.”
