NEWPORT NEWS — You could say Christopher Newport University’s Matt Dzierski has endured plenty of bad luck with injuries. And you would be correct.
From the 2001 season through 2024, Dzierski tore his labrum — a particularly bad injury for quarterbacks, especially in the throwing shoulder. He chipped a piece of his femur and tore a ligament in the Lisfranc joint of his foot. Each issue required surgery.
Dzierski not only endured, he became program’s all-time leader in passing yards (5,784), completions (440), attempts (653) and completion percentage (.674) — all this in only 31 games at quarterback. He’s second in touchdown passes with 40.
But with his shoulder now a shadow of its former self, Dzierski has moved to wide receiver for his sixth and final season. So those passing numbers won’t change much, if at all.
“It’s definitely taught me a lot about life,” he said. “A lot of things happen that are out of your control. You just have to learn how to navigate all of it the best way possible.”
Matt Dzierski is CNU’s all-time leader in passing yards (5,784), completions (440), attempts (653) and completion percentage (.674) — all this in only 31 games at quarterback. (Courtesy of CNU)
Besides, Dzierski knows he’s lucky to be here. Not just at CNU, a place he’s come to love as a second home, but anywhere.
In 2019, the summer before his senior year at South County High was to begin, Dzierski and his father, Paul, were driving home from a football camp. On I-85 North in Durham, North Carolina, in the middle of the afternoon, a bullet crashed through the SUV’s driver’s window.
It was believed to be an errant bullet from a dispute nearby. Neither father nor son were hit, and the only injury was lacerations to Matt’s leg.
Last fall, five days before CNU’s season opener, Dzierski was asleep when a car crashed into his rented house in Hilton Village at 4 a.m. Again, he was unharmed.
“I feel like I’m a magnet for this stuff,” he said.
Dzierski never expected to be here five years, let alone six. But, as he said, things happen that are out of your control.
A dual-threat quarterback from Fairfax County, Dzierski arrived on CNU’s campus in the fall of 2020. Because of the pandemic, the season had already been canceled. The NCAA granted all athletes an extra year of eligibility.
In the 2021 and ’22 seasons, Dzierski accounted for 4,891 yards (4,009 passing, 882 rushing) and 47 touchdowns. He was named New Jersey Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year both seasons.
“Matt bore a heavy brunt of turning this place around both mentally and with his body,” CNU coach Paul Crowley said. “One game, (running back) Gunner White got hurt, and I think we ran (Dzierski) 27 times, or something like that, to find a way to win that conference game.”
That was the fifth game of the 2022 season. Dzierski carried 27 times (good memory, coach) for 132 yards, 61 on his second of two touchdown runs, and passed for another 184. CNU defeated Rowan 20-14.
That was also the game Dzierski first tore his labrum. He played hurt the rest of the way and underwent surgery after the season. A year later, he injured it again. He passed on surgery this time and opted for cortisone shots.
In the winter of 2024, he was hang clean lifting in the weight room and the bar hit his knee on the way down. The impact chipped a piece of his femur, which required surgery to remove pieces of bone around his knee.
Going into the ’24 season, which was to be his last, Dzierski felt ready to go. But in the second game, he tore the Lisfranc ligament in his foot and underwent another surgical procedure.
“That was the end of my fifth year,” Dzierski said.
But, as it turned out, not his career.
Dzierski played only two games in the ’24 season, which along with not playing past the midway point met the criteria for a medical redshirt year. But he was well aware that his replacement, Connor Barry, had been remarkably efficient in his eight games as quarterback.
“I asked Coach Crowley if I could come back for my sixth year,” said Dzierski, who graduated in December of 2024 with a degree in communications. “He said he was going into a different direction with Connor at quarterback.
“He had more years of eligibility and no injuries, and I completely understood. But I wanted to play, so I hit the transfer portal.”
He found Illinois College, a Division III program, but the coach he had built a relationship with left. The offense changed, his shoulder was aching, and Dzierski had second thoughts.
“I was like, do I want to be halfway across the country around people I don’t really know?” he said. “So I decided to talk with Coach Crowley, and he said I could come back and try to play wide receiver.”
True, Dzierski had never played the position before. But he had proven to have what it takes to, say, run a crossing route.
“He’s one of the toughest, if not the toughest, kids I’ve ever coached,” Crowley said. “And that’s coming from a former O-lineman.”
Crowley was an all-conference center in the early 2000s at CNU. And Dzierski wants to be a coach one day.
Dzierski’s first play at his new position came in last week’s season opener, and it was a rude introduction. He was lined up in the slot with Trine University safety Roman Schrock across from him. A screen pass came to White, and Dzierski went to throw a block on Schrock.
“I absolutely got demolished and he ran through me,” Dzierski said. “I got up and laughed and I was like, OK, this is what I signed up for.”
But the day was a success. Dzierski caught his first pass and had a 7-yard run for a first down. The Captains rolled to a 38-7 win.
All in all, he’s glad he stayed.
“I’m content with my role, and I’m happy I can finish off strong with my friends,” Dzierski said. “I’ve learned a lot throughout this whole thing and I met my best friends here. I wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else.”
