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It's being reported that veteran coach Jay Spoonhour will be joining the Bears staff this coming year to replace departing AHC Jace Herl. Not certain if Jay will assume AHC job. Had been HC at Eastern Illinois for about a decade w/o much success, but returns to Springfield where his father is legendary. Makes sense all around.

That's a good hire. EIU is one of the toughest jobs in D-I. Rick Samuels got a couple NCAAs there, got fired, and EIU has had 3 winning seasons in the 20 years since -- 2 of the 3 by Spoonhour.

Recruiting to Charleston-Mattoon is a hellacious task. They've never recovered from firing Samuels, who did as well as you could reasonably do there.

Spoonhour is a respected coach. And like MVU said, Eastern Illinois is one of the worst jobs in Division I. It's more known for football (Tony Romo, Jimmy G), their arena is a glorified high school gym, and EIU has literally zero tradition or school pride. Spoonhour did a great job while he was there considering the circumstances.

racernation wrote:Spoonhour is a respected coach. And like MVU said, Eastern Illinois is one of the worst jobs in Division I. It's more known for football (Tony Romo, Jimmy G), their arena is a glorified high school gym, and EIU has literally zero tradition or school pride. Spoonhour did a great job while he was there considering the circumstances.

Yeah it wasn't a good move for him ; he was fairly young in his career looking for that 1st D-1 gig, but made a bad choice and then was stuck. What do you do; he couldn't win enough to get a better offer, and I guess at that point didn't want to leave for an assistants job, so his career pretty much stalled. He's alot of what we wanted in a veteran bench guy, and of course couldn't be in a more supportive environment personally. Will be interesting to see how things play out over time, but for now, I think a good move for Jay and the program.

racernation wrote:Spoonhour is a respected coach. And like MVU said, Eastern Illinois is one of the worst jobs in Division I. It's more known for football (Tony Romo, Jimmy G), their arena is a glorified high school gym, and EIU has literally zero tradition or school pride. Spoonhour did a great job while he was there considering the circumstances.

And an old, ugly high school gym at that! I've been to many great high school gyms in Southern Illinois. EIU wouldn't make my Top 25 if it was a high school gym.

Finally official today; no word on if he or one of the returning assistants will have the Associate HC title. Either way, hopefully he can add a veteran voice many Bear fans have felt we needed to assist Dana. Dana and Bears have had a solid off season so far retaining the bulk of the roster, adding two quality frosh, 2 transfers who fit needs , and now Spoon.