Eastern Illinois University Athletics

Position: Head Coach
Alma Mater: Western Illinois, 2011
Years at EIU: 4th year (3rd as head coach)

Jason Cherry was named head women’s soccer coach on Aug. 1, 2013 after spending the 2012 season as assistant coach with the Panthers.
 
In his first season at the helm of the program, he was named OVC Coach of the Year – becoming only the fourth coach in conference history to earn the award in their first season. Cherry led the Panthers to the OVC Tournament after being absent from the tournament in 2012 for the first time in school history.
 
In 2013 Cherry coached Meagan Radloff and Lauren Hoppensteadt to All-OVC honors. Radloff was the first Panther to earn first-team accolades since 2010 while Hoppensteadt was named to the second team, respectively.

In 2014, his second year at the helm, the Panthers were hit by the injury bug in goal as four different players were listed to play the position with three seeing time in goal and one player missing the entire season due to injury.  Cherry made several adjustments midseason as EIU finished strong with Radloff once again earning All-OVC honors for EIU.
 
During the 2011 season, Cherry was an assistant coach at East Carolina and helped the Pirates post an 11-8-1 overall record and advance to the Conference USA Tournament Semifinals after being absent from the tournament since 2008. Prior to ECU, he was the top assistant coach at Western Illinois from 2008-11.
 
Cherry assisted WIU to a 26-22-9 overall record in three seasons including a 15-9-2 mark in conference action. In 2010, he coached goalkeeper Laura Atkinson to Summit League First Team honors while helping the Fighting Leathernecks post a 0.84 goals against average – the second lowest in WIU single-season history. The 2010 squad posted nine shutouts, tied for the most in school history.
 
From 2005-08, Cherry served as the associate head men’s soccer coach at Bethel College. As the goalkeeper coach, he assisted the team to a 35-21-12 overall record and a Mid-Central College Conference Regular-Season and Tournament Title in 2005. Bethel advanced to the NAIA National Tournament in 2005 and 2006 with Cherry on the staff.
 
Cherry has also coached at the club level, working as the head club coach for the Junior Irish Soccer Club (2002-08) in South Bend, Ind., and the head club coach for the Indiana Invaders FC (2005). He has 10 years of experience at the high school level as the assistant coach/goalkeepers coach at Penn High School and Clay High School.
 
Cherry played collegiately at Goshen College (NAIA) from 1993-94. The South Bend, Ind., native earned a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Western Illinois in the spring of 2011.