Jason Cherry enters his first season as the Cowgirls Associate Head Coach, joining the staff in July.
Cherry, the native of South Bend, Indiana served as the head coach for three to four teams per season in the ECNL-RL League. He is the only coach of the ECNL-RL staff to have teams qualify for nationals by winning the regionals tournament in 2022. He has assisted numerous players with the recruiting process and helped them earn collegiate playing opportunities. Cherry has been at Albion since 2017.
Cherry helped Northwestern State piece together one of its best defensive seasons in program history as the assistant coach led goalkeeping efforts in 2016.
Cherry coached Alex Latham, the All-Louisiana and All-Southland Conference Goalkeeper of the Year, to a 1.11 goals against average.
Latham made 120 saves (No. 5 in the NCAA) with an .851 save percentage. Her seven shutouts tied for second in NSU single-season history as the Lady Demons allowed just 1.32 goals per game.
Cherry has a wealth of experience, serving as a head coach at Eastern Illinois for three seasons after being a top collegiate assistant for eight seasons. After his EIU tenure, Cherry served as an assistant at IUPUI.
In his first season at EIU, Cherry was named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, becoming just the fourth OVC coach to win the honor in his or her first season.
He guided the Panthers back to the OVC Tournament with a 6-4 conference mark after the program missed the postseason in 2012 for the first time in its history. His 2014 squad won the OVC Sportsmanship award and produced the league’s top GPA (3.62).
He started his EIU tenure in 2012 as an assistant after spending one season as an assistant at Eastern Carolina.
He helped ECU to 11 wins and the Conference USA Tournament semifinals in 2011 after the program hadn’t played in the previous two conference tournaments.
At Western Illinois, Cherry served as the top assistant from 2008-11. He aided the Leathernecks to a combined 26-22-9 record in three seasons including a 15-9-2 mark in conference action.
In 2010, his goalkeepers tied a program record for nine shutouts and finished in the Top 30 nationally in save percentage (0.848) and top 55 in goals against average (0.84).
As an assistant coach at NAIA member Bethel College from 2005-08, Cherry helped the program to a 35-21-12 mark with two national tournament appearances and conference regular season and tournament titles in 2005. Additionally, Bethel won the NAIA Futsal title in 2007.
Cherry spent 10 seasons at the high school ranks as a goalkeeper coach.
He is NSCAA and USSF licensed coach. Cherry played two seasons as a goalkeeper at NAIA member Goshen College. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University.
Cherry and wife Karly have four children- Natalie, Owen, Henry, and Colin.
