Russell DeMasi, the Savannah Christian football team’s new offensive 
coordinator, has strong memories of his days as a student-athlete at his alma mater.
A mere 17 or so years ago, DeMasi talked with guidance counselor Beth Straight about what he wanted to do with his life. Today, Straight is the Upper School principal. DeMasi has a neighboring office as the school’s test center coordinator, in addition to his coaching duties for head coach Baker Woodward’s staff.
“I think I’m in her old office,” said DeMasi, a 2008 SCPS graduate.
“I’m grateful to Savannah Christian for giving me the opportunity,” he said. “I’m 
excited to work at my alma mater and shape these (players) and help them not make the same mistakes I did and help them try to reach their full potential.”
He couldn’t have predicted the specific, small-world coincidence of his present office location. The son of Karl DeMasi, a longtime coach and athletic director at area high schools, Russell was raised in a close, sports-oriented family in Savannah. As a teenager, he could have laid out a general overview of his career plans:
Play college football and earn a degree, coach football in college and/or high school, and maybe even come back to the school on Chatham Parkway to coach and motivate future generations of Raiders.
Not that DeMasi recalls making such a prescient statement to the guidance counselor.
“I should have,” said DeMasi, who turned 35 last month. “At that point in time, I wasn’t looking too past what we’re having for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s pretty cool to see it all come full circle.”
Woodward said that the school is excited to have DeMasi back with the Raiders.
“As an alumnus, he understands the culture and traditions of our football program,” Woodward wrote in correspondence with Prep Sports Report.
Photo: 2007 Savannah Christian Raiders take the field pregame at Garden City Stadium. Courtesy: Birk Herrath Photography
“His experience, vision and leadership will bring a fresh dynamic to our offensive staff. We’re confident that his innovative approach, paired with his deep commitment to our success, will elevate our entire staff and help keep us competing at a championship level.”
While there are 360 degrees to his journey, DeMasi has followed a path with one major detour from coaching in Georgia since his start in 2013.
For the last two football seasons, he was associate head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach at Wayne State University, an NCAA Division II program in Detroit.
The move to Michigan took him out of his comfort zone, he acknowledges, but being in a new situation was challenging in his maturation as a coach and adult.
“When you’re a football coach, not a lot of people get to call places home for as long as I did,” DeMasi said. “Being a football coach, it comes with the territory that you’re probably going to have to move around. There’s an old saying, ‘You’re one of two things: Either you’ve been fired or you’re going to get fired.’ ”
Traveling the Peach State
DeMasi’s trajectory took the former Raiders standout quarterback to Georgia Southern (2008-12) in Statesboro, where he was a reserve player, earned a degree in general studies (concentrations in coaching, education and business) and met his wife, Kate. So, a very productive outcome.
His next stop was Shorter University (2013-14) in Rome, GA, where he earned a
master’s degree in organizational leadership. He got his first college coaching experience as a graduate student working with quarterbacks and running backs, and the next season, he was co-special teams coordinator.
His longest tenure was at Savannah State (2015-21), beginning as the QB coach in 2015 and showing his versatility inadding titles and responsibilities as the seasons passed. He was assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator, QBcoach and recruiting coordinator in 2021.
After head coach Shawn Quinn led the Tigers to an 8-2 mark in 2021, 16-6 over three seasons and 10-1 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, he left for a defensive assistant position at Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
DeMasi dutifully served as interim head coach through off-season workouts and recruiting until early April 2022, when he was one of four finalists for the job but was passed over for Aaron Kelton, who offered him a staff position.
DeMasi respectfully declined and praised Kelton while thanking SSU for the seven-year opportunity. He was looking for a fresh start, which came when Calvary Day School football coach Mark Stroud had an opening for an offensive coordinator and QB coach.
DeMasi is a solid subscriber to the mindset that when bad things happen—and they will—it’s more about how one handles adversity. Is the reaction positive or negative? Is the response to hide or to learn from it, improve, and move forward?
After a strong season in which the high-powered Cavaliers (11-1) captured the Region 3-3A crown and reached the GHSA state quarterfinals, DeMasi received an offer to return to the college ranks.
Tough times in the Motor City
Tyrone Wheatley, Wayne State’s new head coach, had interviewed DeMasi years earlier for a position at Morgan State in Baltimore. The former University of
Michigan star, NFL player, and running backs coach wanted DeMasi to come to Detroit, and DeMasi and his wife were ready for the big move.
“One of the best things about it is my wife has always been supportive of wanting to start a new journey,” DeMasi said. “No matter where we went, she said we’re going to make it work. When we got the opportunity, it felt like we had to take that chance, get out of our comfort zone, and do it. You expect to have to move.
“I don’t think it was something that was easy for us because of how much we love Savannah, but we thought it was a necessary move for our family,” he continued. “One of the biggest things when I got back here was that you don’t reallyrealize what you’ve got until you make a change or you move or it’s gone.
“We had been in Savannah for so long, we kind of felt like we were ready to make the move, make the coaching journey. Not long after we were up there, we realized how much of a community and how much of our family is here, and how good it was. I think that was a major factor in trying to get back.”
DeMasi was back in the job search in November after Wheatley released him, defensive coordinator Tom Sims (another former SSU coach), and other assistants. WSU was 3-8 in 2023 against the toughest-rated schedule in DII, and 2-9 against the third-toughest slate in 2024.
“You always want more time to get things right,” DeMasi said. “I wish I had gotten that time, but you’ve got to respect what the person in charge feels is best for the program.”
He’s not going to make excuses, though the list of setbacks included the starting QB breaking his leg in Game 2, the backup QB later going down to a hamstring injury and the third-stringer having to play. When their No. 2 QB came back, the Warriors won their last two games, 38-14 and 30-14.
“I felt we were starting to perform on Saturdays the way the coaching staff felt like they would perform on Monday through Thursday,” DeMasi said. “Every week was tremendous confidence that we had a chance to win the game and find a way to be successful. I’m just happy those last two we got it right.”
Russell and Kate view their time in Michigan as a learning experience with many positives. The birth of their daughter, Cameron Bailey DeMasi, is at the top of the list, by far.
Born in September during Wayne State’s 0-9 start to the season, Cameron adapted quickly to college football (her first game was at 3 weeks old!).
“She was having more fun than anyone out there,” Russell said. “I think there’s something about sound that makes her sleep. We’d turn on football games (at home) on full blast to get her to sleep.”
Newborn’s sleep habits being what they are, and aren’t, her mom and dad somehow managed when she was born on a Monday of game week and throughout the season.
“It was humbling to have to try to get everything together,” Russell said of juggling work and home duties that first week.
Fatherhood put a new perspective on life during a challenging season. The competitor in DeMasi hated losing, and he wasn’t going to shortchange his effort for the team. But he was also giving his all for his family.
He called it living two separate lives.
“You’re going to wake up and the sun’s going to come up tomorrow, but you’ve got to find a way to be better than you were the day before,” he said. “You never want to be winless, but there are bigger things in life than winning and losing. It was a grind.
My wife made it a lot easier than it should have been because she cares for that kid so much and really made it easy on me to focus on the things that I need to focus on at work. When I came home, it was time to focus on her and the newborn.”
Have family, will travel.
Both sets of Cameron’s grandparents made the journey to Michigan multiple times to visit and provide support, for which her parents are grateful.
Russell said they made it a lot easier for him because of work demands, but added, “Super Mom (Kate) won’t admit it, but she could have done it all by herself. I could see that whenever I was home.”
Now that support system is based in the Savannah area with their return. Kate, who is from Winder, has a full-time job working remotely for Quantum Health, a consumer healthcare navigation company based in Dublin, Ohio.
Stroud, who stepped down as Calvary’s longtime football coach after the 2024 season, is happy to see the DeMasi family back in Savannah, saying it’s about one’s priorities, putting one’s faith and family ahead of a job.
“I think he’s come to realize how important his family is, being close to your family, how important getting back to your roots is,” Stroud said. “The game is the game. You coach it wherever you coach it at; you do the best you can. If those other things are not in place, you’re going to end up in your life with not much if it’s just about the game.”
Russell’s parents are nearby, as is his brother, Dom, a former Calvary Day standout student-athlete who went on to play professional baseball. Dom and his wife became parents last June with the birth of Dax Christian DeMasi. The infant cousins already have a tight bond.
“Watching my daughter and his son grow up together is invaluable,”
Russell said when asked if he would consider coaching in college again.
“Truly so grateful for the opportunity to be back in Savannah. It’s going to be tough for us to leave here again. We truly realize what a special place this is and how special it is to be around family when raising a young one.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy Birk Herrath and DeMasi's social media pages
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