In two seasons, Anthony Scelfo has made quite an impression as the Demons quarterbacks coach.
Under Scelfo’s tutelage, Shelton Eppler set a total of 18 school records in just two seasons as the Demons quarterback. Eppler broke current head coach Brad Laird’s 24-year-old career passing yardage record in 2019 and became the first NSU passer to surpass 3,000 yards in a single season, throwing for a school-record 3,587 yards. Behind Eppler’s standout season, Demon quarterbacks set a new team record for single-season passing yards for the second straight season, tallying 3,616.
Ahead of the 2020 season, Scelfo has been named NSU’s recruiting coordinator.
During the 2018 season – his first on the NSU staff -- Scelfo, a former two-sport standout at Tulane, helped guide Eppler to honorable mention All-Southland Conference honors while the Demons’ passers piloted an offense that established 20 school single-game or single-season records.
Four NSU quarterbacks – Eppler, Clay Holgorsen, Kaleb Fletcher and Kenny Sears – combined to throw for a school-record 3,530 yards and 32 touchdown passes.
Eppler twice threw a school-record six touchdown passes while Fletcher established a single-season school mark with 30 completions in a 31-28 win against Houston Baptist. Eppler’s 474 passing yards in a 49-48 win at Lamar also established a school single-game mark.
All four of Scelfo’s quarterbacks completed at least 60.3 percent of their passes, leading to a 61.1 percent team mark.
Scelfo came to Natchitoches after a two-year stint at Texas-San Antonio where he coached quarterbacks and tight ends as a graduate assistant.
While with the Roadrunners, Scelfo helped lead UTSA to bowl eligibility in the 2016 and 2017 seasons – the program’s sixth and seventh seasons of existence.
In both of Scelfo’s seasons at UTSA, the Roadrunners surpassed 2,000 passing yards, topping out at 2,777 in the 2016 season.
During his playing career, Scelfo was a three-year football letterman (2005-07) and a three-year baseball letterman (2006-08) at Tulane before the Tampa Bay Rays selected him in the eighth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
Scelfo spent four seasons in the Rays system, starting with an All-Star selection in the New York-Penn League in 2008. While at Hudson Valley, Scelfo earned the Erik Walker Award for teamwork, sportsmanship and community involvement with the Renegades.
At Tulane, Scelfo passed for 1,396 yards and six touchdowns while chipping in 171 rushing yards.
As part of the Green Wave baseball team, Scelfo was a first-team All-Conference USA honoree as a junior, leading Tulane in triples, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, walks and on-base percentage. A versatile defender who saw time at all three outfield positions as well as first, second and third base, Scelfo led CUSA in triples and walks and ranked in the league’s top 10 in six other offensive categories.
While a senior at New Orleans’ Jesuit High School, Scelfo became the first player in the past 50 years to be named the Catholic League’s Most Valuable Player in both football and baseball and was an all-state selection in both sports.
A 2013 Tulane graduate in political science, Scelfo spent three years as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley in New Orleans before beginning his coaching career.
He and his wife, Bailey, welcomed their first child, son Giovanni Jude Scelfo, to the world Dec. 28.
