Jon Heacock
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Jon Heacock is Head Coach of the Youngstown State University Division 1-AA football team. Heacock, who was signed as head coach on January 25, 2001, is entering his seventh season in the position at YSU, with a 43-27 overall record. He served as assistant coach to Jim Tressel for 7 years before taking over when Tressel left to assume the head coaching position at Ohio State University.
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[edit] Playing Career and Early Coaching Career
A native of Beloit, Ohio, Heacock earned a bachelor's degree from Muskingum College in health and physical education. He participated in both football and track and field at Muskingum. He is a 1979 graduate of West Branch High School.
After graduating from Muskingum in 1983, he accepted a position as a graduate assistant defensive line coach at the University of Toledo. In 1984, he served on the football coaching staff at Steubenville High School, where he helped the team to an Ohio Division II State Championship.
Heacock served as the defensive coordinator, defensive line coach, and secondary coach at West Liberty College from 1985-1987. The next two seasons (1988-1990), he coached beneath Bo Schlembechler at the University of Michigan as a graduate assistant. Heacock worked with both the defensive backs and special teams during a stretch in which Michigan won two Big Ten titles and one Rose Bowl Championship. He served from 1990-1991 as an assistant coach at the United States Military Academy before joining the staff at YSU in 1991.
[edit] Career from 1991-2000
In his first year at YSU, Heacock served as defensive backs coach as the Penguins finished 12-3, winning the National Championship in 1991. During the next five seasons, from 1992-1996, he was promoted and served as the defensive coordinator. YSU advanced to the title game for four consecutive years, losing to Marshall University in 1992 and rebounding with victories over Marshall (1993) and Boise State University(1994), respectfully. YSU finished 3-8 in 1995 and 8-3 in 1996, bringing Heacock's overall record for six seasons at YSU to 61-19-2.
Coach Heacock left YSU for a period of three years to serve as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Indiana University. He returned to Youngstown State in 2000 as the defensive coordinator and led the Penguins to a 9-3 finish. The Heacock-led Penguin defense was ranked 15th in the nation in scoring defense.
[edit] 2001-Present: YSU Head Coach
Jon Heacock was named YSU's fifth head coach on January 25, 2001 when Jim Tressel left the school to coach at OSU. Since taking over the Penguin football program, Heacock has garnered four winning seasons, including three with eight or more wins.
The Penguins finished 8-3 in 2005, with a 5-2 record in the Gateway Conference that earned the program its first-ever Gateway Conference title, in a tie with Northern Iowa University and Southern Illinois University. Heacock and his team returned in 2006 as a Gateway force to be reckoned with. The Penguins went 6-1 in the Gateway Conference and won the school's first outright league title. For just the seventh time in school history, Heacock and the Penguins advanced to the NCAA playoff semifinals, defeating foes James Madison University and Illinois State University before falling to top-ranked Appalachian State University. They finished with an 11-3 overall record.
Heacock was named the Gateway's Bruce Craddock Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2006. He was also named the American Football Coaches Association's Division I-AA Region Four Coach of the Year in both seasons, as well as being named a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award.
Heacock has two children, son Jace and daughter Adelyn, with his wife Trescia, a registered nurse.
[edit] References
YSUsports.com- Head Coach Jon Heacock
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