Waterloo, ONT - Darrell Adams has ended his eight-year* tenure as Associate Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator, and Recruiting Coordinator of the Waterloo Warriors football program. This follows the announcement on Friday (January 5, 2024) that Adams has accepted the head coaching position at the University of Toronto.
"Darrell's contributions to our program are greatly appreciated," said head coach Chris Bertoia, expressing his gratitude towards him. "His positive impact and transformative influence on the lives of our student-athletes, our program, and the community at large are commendable. Darrell, his wife Amrita and their children Isaiah and Aaliyah will be missed by our Warrior Football family! We wish DA and his family the absolute best on their new journey."
Darrell Adams, originally from Long Island, NY, has had an illustrious career as both a coach and a player. He graduated from Villanova University with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Marketing, where he was a 3x Captain and 3x first-team All-Conference player (2001-2005). After graduation, he joined the NY Jets as an undrafted free agent and spent one and a half seasons (2006-2007) on their practice roster. He then moved to Canada and played as a three-year starter at defensive tackle for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2007-2010).
From 2013-2015, Adams was the Defensive Line/Head Strength and Conditioning Coordinator at Carleton University, and prior to that, he was the Head Strength Coach and Assistant Defensive Line
Coach with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In June of 2022, Darrell participated in the inaugural CFL Diversity in Sport program, serving as a guest coach with the Toronto Argonauts.
Off the field, Adams is a co-founder of The Alliance (University of Waterloo Athletics and Recreation), working collectively to establish positive systemic changes for the University of Waterloo Black Indigenous & Racialized community through recognition of, education towards, and actions against racism. In 2022, Adams was awarded the OUA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Award in recognition of his work supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts on and off campus. Adams was part of the OUA's EDI committee and held roles in the Waterloo Black Faculty Collective, the Black Canadian Coaches Association, and the Black Football Coaches of Canada groups.
We would like to express our gratitude to Darrell for the significant impact he has made in our football program, athletic department, and the entire campus community. We wish him all the best as he embarks on his next journey in Toronto.
In the near future, the Waterloo Warriors plan to commence the process of searching for a new full-time associate coach for the Warriors Football program.
(*with the 2020 season cancelled due to COVID)
