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Youngstown State confirms Jerrod Calhoun as the new mens basketball coach
Youngstown State confirms Jerrod Calhoun as the new men’s head basketball coach
Youngstown State officially announced Jerrod Calhoun as the next men’s head basketball coach Monday afternoon.
The announcement comes two days after Calhoun’s Fairmont State team fell in the Division II national title game against Northwest Missouri State and the Falcons concluded a 34-3 season.
“Jerrod Calhoun brings every attribute that we were looking for in a head coach to our basketball program,” YSU athletic director Ron Strollo said in a released statement. “Not only does he have an enormously successful track record as a head coach, he also has experience with a high-major Division I program as an assistant coach, strong regional recruiting ties and a passion to be at Youngstown State.”
Calhoun will speak to the media at a press conference today.
Calhoun, a native of East Liverpool, played two years for the Cleveland State Vikings. He spent the last five seasons as the head coach at Fairmont State and accumulated an overall record of 124-38. He guided FSU to the NCAA Division II Tournament in each of the last three years and four times overall. The Falcons won no fewer than 20 games in each of his five seasons and won 79 percent of their conference games.
Calhoun then transferred to Cincinnati where he graduated in 2004. He began his coaching career at Cincinnati during the 2003-04 season, where he served as a student assistant under now current West Virginia head basketball coach Bob Huggins. That year, the Bearcats were 25-7 overall and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The new Penguin coach said he’s excited to take over a local program.
“I am from northeast Ohio, I have family all over northeast Ohio and I know people in the Mahoning Valley love sports,” Calhoun said in a released statement. “We’re excited to build and grow a program that people love to watch.
Villa Angela-St. Joseph head boys basketball coach Babe Kwasniak knows Calhoun well and he believes the greatest strength Calhoun brings to the program is his work ethic.
“He’s relentless,” Kwasniak said. “This profession isn’t something that he’s dabbled in. It’s something he’s wanted to do probably since he was in high school.
“He’s kind of climbed the ranks the old fashioned way and that blue collar work ethic I think fits in well in a city like Youngstown.”
Kwasniak said that same quality will follow through on recruiting as well.
“He’s just tireless,” Kwasniak said. “When other people may be taking a break that’s when he’ll be out. He doesn’t leave any stone unturned and he’ll look in places other people won’t.
“In this day and age there’s not a ton of secrets out there with social media but it’s all about going out there and pounding the pavement. If you’re making 100 calls and I’m making 10 you’re probably going to beat me.”