Middletown High School football has been a part of Zach Blum's life since he was in elementary school.

"I can remember being 8, 9 years old and going to the games and knowing the players' names, and getting the chance to shake their hands, shake the coach's hand," Blum said. "That was always special to me."

Growing up in the town 28 miles north of Dover, Delaware, he was coached in youth football by its longtime mayor, Ken Branner, and learned about its gridiron history.

"Middletown had never had a lot of football tradition, and after the 1961 season, there was a group of people who were tired of not winning," Blum said. "So they went on a nationwide search and ended up in Edenton, North Carolina, where they found a man named Bill Billings. They brought him up here in 1962 and he didn't lose a game until 1967.

"They won 53 games in a row, and Ken Branner played for Mr. Billings. So I grew up with those stories of those guys at that time. It changed the course of Middletown as a town, I think, and as a football program, for sure."

Blum would play different positions when he was in high school, starting at center as a senior. And in 2008, 10 years after graduating, he made his way back to the team and became an assistant coach.

"I had always loved football and I thought the impact that it had made on my life and my career, and the lessons that I took from it, I wanted to be able to pay a little bit of that back," Blum said.

He paid that back and then some. After coaching the defensive line or linebackers for five years, he was the Cavaliers' defensive coordinator for another five years. In 2017, he became their head coach.

"The coach who had been here was leaving to go to Texas, and he said he thought that I was the person to do it," Blum said. "And so out of a sense of obligation and loyalty to Middletown, I wanted to, I guess, pick up the reins and be the next link in that chain."

And so after playing for four years at Middletown and on its coaching staff for 10, Blum's first game calling the shots was in the 2017 season opener at home against a rival, Smyrna High School. Was he nervous? Excited? Both?

"Definitely both," Blum laughed. "I had never coached a snap of offense before, and I thought if I didn't know anything about the offense, and we certainly had qualified coaches, guys who had done a great job, but I was worried that if somebody else was coaching the offense and we were struggling, at the end of the day, it was my responsibility. And if I didn't have any idea what was going on, I couldn't help fix it. So I jumped over and started calling the offense.

"Well, we put wristbands on the kids and were calling these plays, but I didn't put the wristband plays in order. So it would be like, Blue-7, Blue-96, Blue-22. The guys had no idea where to look for these plays. And it ended up where we just had to start yelling in the play calls because nobody knew how to use these wristbands because I didn't set them up the right way.

"So I learned. It was very, very humbling. We ended up winning the game. The guys played great and overcame my mistakes. But it was – if you ever think you're ready to be a head coach, it was a great reminder that you're not."

Which is a solid example of why the Super Bowl is not played in Week 1.

Blum would become ready. Now in his ninth year as Middletown's head coach, he has a 75-23 career record. The Cavaliers shut out William Penn High School (New Castle, Delaware) 42-0 on Saturday to improve to 3-3.

Last season, he guided the Cavaliers to become the Delaware Class 3A State Champions. And in a profession that has many "me first" personalities, Blum has proven to be a "we first" type of head coach.

"I really think that the biggest highlight for me each year is when we practice on Thanksgiving," he said. "If we're fortunate enough to do well on the field, we're able to practice for the playoffs over Thanksgiving weekend. And we'll have 500 or 600 people out at practice on Thanksgiving morning.

"Guys in college, guys playing college football, this is where they want to come back to. They want to come back and see the guys, and they want to have a relationship. Our guys can now reach out and text 25 or 30 guys playing college football, and they'll get right back to them immediately. That sense of community and that sense of pride in what we're doing means a lot."

He has also proven why he's been named as the Philadelphia Eagles High School Coach of the Week

"I think it's a huge accomplishment for everybody who makes up this program," Blum said. "From our coaches, to our players, the alumni, to all the support staff, our athletic training staff, our administration, everybody's so supportive. So for me, I think it's great recognition for all the people and the sacrifices they've made to make this program so special."

"Coach Blum deserves this recognition for so many reasons," Middletown Athletic Director Colleen Kelley said. "Most importantly, his goal is to mentor these young men into better humans and better citizens after leaving our football program. He works year-round at making sure his student-athletes are working hard in the classroom, modeling good behaviors within the school and community, and becoming better! His work goes way beyond the football field.

"He leads by example, living a lifestyle that reflects the values he teaches. He has created a family atmosphere where they can all be themselves."

That family atmosphere he's created reaches beyond the players and literally hits home. A captain as a player, Blum ended up marrying the cheerleading captain, Casey, and they have two daughters who are following in their mom's footsteps. Sophie is a varsity cheerleader at the high school as a freshman, and Sailor is in the second grade and cheers for the town's youth football team.

Blum values the relationships he's formed with the players and feels that has contributed to the team's success. But more than the victories they're achieving today, his hope is for them to continue aiming for success after they graduate from Middletown.

"Our main goal is to get them further down whatever path they want to pursue, help them to figure out what it is they're passionate about, and help them to get closer to that goal and understand what it's going to take to accomplish that," Blum said.

"And one of the biggest things, I felt like as a program, we hadn't done enough to get guys recruited. So that's become a huge priority. And the mechanics of that look like, if you're able to do that, then all the other pieces have to be in place. The stress of how to do the details, do well academically, do well from an attendance standpoint, to make sure your behavior in the hallway is right.

"There's going to be a lot of guys who do want to pursue college football, and that's great. They'll be well-positioned to do that. But there's also guys who want to be auto mechanics or HVAC guys, or they want to go pursue the military. And the same lessons will open doors for them in those careers, as well.