Coaching Staff

John Bowes
Defensive Coordinator

John Bowes comes to UD from New Hampshire, where he has been the safeties coach since 2018.

A 2006 graduate of Catholic University (where he was a three-year starter in the secondary), Bowes got his coaching start at his alma mater immediately after his playing career ended.  He spent the 2007 season as a graduate assistant at Clarion University.

In 2008, he moved to William & Mary, where he coached for five years.  He began his time at W&M as a defensive and special teams assistant, then moved to defensive backs.  He also coached linebackers before being named special teams coordinator and safeties coach.

He was part of three FCS playoff teams (2009, 2010, 2022) and two CAA championshi8p teams (2009, 2022) while at William & Mary.

Bowes spent three years (2013-16) at Bucknell as the special teams coordinator, while coaching linebackers and then the secondary.  In 2015, he coached the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and Third-Team All-America safety Clayton Ewell.  Bowes spent one season at Fordham as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

Greg Whalen
Offensive Coordinator

Greg Whalen joins Flyer staff after coaching tight ends at Western Michigan in 2022.  Prior to that, Whalen was the offensive line coach at Marian University from 2019 to 2021.  Whalen helped guide an offense that ranked No. 10 in NAIA passing offense per game in 2020-21.  He led one of the top offensive lines in the NAIA in 2019, ranking second in the country in sacks allowed, just six for the entire season.  That line had an All-American and had four of five linemen earn All-Conference honors.

Marian played in the NAIA national championship game in 2019.

Twenty-two of the last 35 starting offensive linemen he has coached were named all-conference.

A North Central College football alumnus, Whalen coached two seasons at North Central College (2017-18).  Prior to North Central, he was the offensive line coach for two seasons at Aurora University.  He also served as a defensive line and tight end grad assistant in 2014 at Aurora.

Whalen played four seasons at North Central, starting 34 games and was a team captain, helping advance North Central to the NCAA DIII Semifinals as a senior.

Paul Amakihe
Assistant Coach/Linebackers

Paul Amakihe comes to Dayton after coaching outside linebackers at Carnegie Mellon in 2022, helping the Tartans to an 11-1 record and a trip to the NCAA Division III playoffs

Prior to Carnegie Mellon, Amakihe was the defensive run game coordinator and linebackers coach for one season at Wilkes University.  He also served as interim defensive coordinator in the spring of 2022.  Prior to Wilkes, he was at McDaniel College from 2018-21 where he coached the linebackers.  Amakihe also spent a year on staff at SUNY Cortland where he coached the tight ends.

Amakihe is a 2016 graduate of William & Mary, where he earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. While at William & Mary, he played two seasons for the Tribe as a linebacker and defensive end. He earned his master's degree from McDaniel in kinesiology in 2020, and also earned his CSCS accreditation while at SUNY Cortland.

Ted Flaherty
Assistant Coach/Secondary

Ted Flaherty joined the Dayton coaching staff in the summer of 2022.  He will coach the UD hybrid linebacker/defensive back position known as Flyer in the Dayton nomenclature.

Flaherty comes to UD from Minnesota, where he was a defensive intern working with the Golden Gopher linebackers during the 2021-22 academic year.  A four-year letterwinner at Curry College in Milton, Mass., Flaherty began his coaching career in 2020 at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The Hanover, Mass. native earned his degree in Communications from Curry in 2020.  He was football team captain as a senior.

Andy Aracri
Assistant Coach/Defensive Tackles

Andy Aracri is in his fourth season at the University of Dayton, coaching the Flyer defensive tackles.  He is a 2001 graduate of Miami University, where he earned his bachelors in elementary education while playing football for the RedHawks. At Miami, Aracri was an ALL-MAC defensive tackle, team captain, and a two-time Vic Waltz Most Outstanding Defensive Lineman Award winner.

He was signed as a free agent by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001. After a short stint with the Buccaneers, he headed north and played for the British Columbia Lions and the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL, as well as the LA Avengers of the AFL.

Aracri coached high school football from 2001-17. Before UD, he coached at Centerville High School, serving as the special team’s coordinator and defensive line coach. He was the head football coach for six seasons at Kettering Fairmont High School. He has been an active member in Miami Valley Football Coaches Association and has served on its board of directors.

He currently teaches Health & Physical Education at Fairmont High School. Aracri completed his Master’s degree in secondary education from Wright State in 2009. He and his wife Jenny have two daughters, Reese & Alyse.

Ted Hefter
Passing Game Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach

A five-year quarterback at William & Mary, Hefter joins the Dayton staff after spending the 2021 and 2022 campaigns as a graduate assistant at Western Michigan.  He joined the Broncos as a defensive GA in 2021, then transitioned to working with WMU's quarterbacks as a GA last year.

Western Michigan was the 2021 Quick Lane Bowl champion in 2021.

Hefter was William & Mary's team captain as a senior in the spring of 2021.  In a start against James Madison, the top-ranked team in FCS football at the time, he completed 13 of 20 passes for 128 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

While at W&M, Hefter was the SAAC president, a winner of William & Mary's prestigious Cypher Award, which recognizes elite students as being stewards of the university's core values, and a three-time winner of W&M's Provost Award for academic excellence.  He was also a four-time member of  the CAA Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll

Sam Costantino
Assistant Coach/Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator

Sam Costantino returns to the Flyer football program in 2022 in a new role.  A wideout at Dayton from 2016 to 2019, he is back coaching the UD receivers.

Costantino comes back to the Red & Blue from Ball State, where he was a graduate assistant for the 2021 season.  After graduating from UD in 2020, he had stops at Eastern Illinois, where he was offensive quality control and assistant wide receivers coach in the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021, and Westminster College, where he served as corners coach and co-special teams coordinator in the spring and fall of 2020.

The Middlesex, N.J. product got his coaching start while still playing football at UD.  He was a wide receiver intern at his alma mater, Immaculata High School in the summer of 2017.  He was also a football operations intern at Rutgers in the summers of 2018 and 2019.

Costantino graduated from Dayton in 2020 with a degree in Marketing.

Mark Ewald
Assistant Coach/Running Backs

Mark Ewald is in his ninth year with the Flyers after 16 years with Wittenberg University. In his time at Dayton, Ewald has coached the top two rushers in UD history.  He mentored the 2015 Pioneer Football League Offensive Player of the Year, Connor Kacsor, and then led another of his running backs, Tucker Yinger, break Kacsor's records and become Dayton's all-time leading rusher.

Ewald coached Wittenberg’s record-setting receiving corps from 1996-2005, before taking over the running backs coaching duties in 2006. Almost every Wittenberg receiving record was broken under Ewald, as the passing game flourished and was regularly ranked among the best in the NCAC and all of NCAA Division III. During his tenure, the running game saw great success as well.

Coach Ewald was also instrumental in leading the Wittenberg Special Teams, specifically the kickoff return and coverage teams. Under his guidance, the Tigers were ranked in the Top 50 nationally multiple times.

Ewald graduated from Capital University in 1988, where he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing with a minor in Education

He and his wife, Diane, reside in Kettering, OH and have three children- Nicholas, Jacklyn, and Luke David.  Luke will play football at Ohio University beginning in the fall of 2019.

Scott Horcher
Assistant Coach/Cornerbacks

Flyer football alum Scott Horcher returns to the Dayton football program this season.  Horcher will coach the cornerbacks, the position he started at for UD from 2006 to 2009.

Horcher played on teams that were a combined 33-12.  He was on teams that won the Pioneer Football League championship in 2007 and 2009, and the Flyers won the NCAA Division I-AA Mid-Major (non-scholarship) national championship by defeating Albany in the Gridiron Classic in 2007.  He was the ROTC Cannonball Award as UD’s top newcomer in 2006, and an Academic All-PFL performer.

A high school teacher, Horcher has coached on the football staffs at Dayton area high schools since his graduation from UD in 2010. He was Special Teams Coordinator and coached defensive backs from 2011-15, and was defensive backs coach and then Co-Defensive Coordinator at Springboro High School from 2016-2018.

In addition to his undergraduate degree in Education and Allied Professions from UD, he earned his master's in Fitness and Health Promotion from Concordia University Chicago in 2017

Scott continues to teach Physical Education and Health at Fairmont.  He and wife Renee live in Miamisburg and have three children Caroline, Camden & Callie.