Charma Bell, director of development and programs, First Tee – Delaware

A lifelong volunteer, Bell began helping the LPGA Urban Youth Golf Program as a parent when it served 50 students in 1994. She served as site coordinator, volunteer instructor then program director and helped guide the group’s transition to First Tee – Delaware in 2007. Now in her 32nd year, she is director of development and programs for an ever-expanding organization that reaches more than 25,000 students, teaching life skills and golf at 19 courses in Delaware, two in Maryland and many additional community and school locations throughout all three counties. The Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcaster Association’s Herm Reitzes Award winner for community service in 2017, Bell has seen First Tee participants go on to become doctors, teachers, stay-at-home moms, PGA professionals and business leaders.

Brian O’Neill, NFL player, Minnesota Vikings

When Brian O’Neill was at The Salesianum School, it was hard to foresee him as a two-time Pro Bowl right tackle in the NFL. For one, O’Neill played tight end at Salesianum. Secondly, football wasn’t even O’Neill’s best sport. That’s because O’Neill, who’s 6-foot-7, was named the Delaware Boys Basketball Player of the Year by the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association in 2014 − and that was on a team with future NBA star Donte DiVincenzo.

Yet O’Neill was offered a football scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh, where he eventually transitioned to the offensive line, adding about 60 pounds in the process. O’Neill then became a second-round pick of the Vikings in 2018, and a full-time starter early in his rookie season.

Delaware NFL Star Brian O’Neill speaks on his annual football camp

Minnesota Vikings RT Brian O’Neill, and former Los Angeles Rams LB Troy Reeder, both from Delaware, speak on hosting O’Neill’s annual camp.

Through it all, O’Neill and fellow NFL player and Salesianum teammate Troy Reeder, along with Darnell Savage, have hosted an annual football camp at the Titus Sports Performance Academy at the Chase Center in Wilmington. This year’s free event, held June 12, had about 100 middle and high school kids in attendance going through football drills with O’Neill and Reeder providing instruction.

“The people have always been awesome to us here in this community,” O’Neill told Delaware Online/The News Journal. “It’s a great way to say connected.”

DeSean Jackson, Delaware State University football coach

Jackson made the unlikely transition from star NFL wide receiver, including two stints with the Philadelphia Eagles, to head college football coach − without any experience as a head coach at any level. In fact, Jackson was an assistant coach at a high school in California when Delaware State offered him the head coaching job in December 2024.

Yet Jackson led the Hornets to an 8-4 record in 2025. It was DSU’s first winning season since 2012, and its most successful season since 2007, the only time the Hornets made the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. To show how quickly Jackson turned DSU around, the school had gone 2-21 in the two seasons before Jackson took over.

And now, Jackson said he hopes to build on that success, both on the field and off. The school signed Jackson to a new contract last December that runs through the 2028 season.

“Just two days before Christmas (in 2024), I began the next phase of my professional career, as a first-time head coach, in a community I did not know, with players I did not recruit,” Jackson said in a statement upon signing his new contract.

“It was not easy, but it was important. Giving my whole self to these young men and representing one of the best Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the country has been a high honor and one I do not intend to take for granted. We have some unfinished business to take care of on the field, and I am proud to be a part of the athletic transformation taking place at the school.”

Jordan Skolnick, University of Delaware athletic director

Jordan Skolnick went from “interim” to the official athletic director in January, taking control of an athletic department that just completed its first full season in Conference USA. The conference plays at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football. The Blue Hens made a successful transition, reaching a bowl game in their first season at FBS. That brought exposure, not to mention revenue, to the athletic department. All the while, Skolnick oversaw the transition to paying college athletes, a massive amount of change within the last year alone.

So yes, it has been a whirlwind ever since Skolnick became the interim AD in March 2025 following Chrissi Rawak’s abrupt resignation. Skolnick came with Rawak from Michigan in 2016. His first was as senior associate athletic director for development, helping to raise the funds necessary to renovate Delaware Stadium and build the state-of-the-art Whitney Athletic Center. Now, Skolnick oversees every aspect of athletics in a rapidly-changing sports environment.