EIU Names Jay Spoonhour Men's Basketball Coach

EIU Names Jay Spoonhour Men's Basketball Coach

When he was about 16 years old Jay Spoonhour remembers sitting at the end of the bench at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) where his dad Charlie was the head coach and watching the Bears play Eastern Illinois and All-American Jay Taylor.

Fast forward some 20-plus years and Jay Spoonhour has almost come full circle as on Monday afternoon in Lantz Arena he was named the head coach of the Eastern Illinois University men's basketball program.  Spoonhour is the 14th head coach in the program's history and only the third head coach since the program joined the NCAA Division I ranks in 1981.

Spoonhour met with members of the media, members of the community and members of the Panthers basketball team as he first introduced his family to the crowd before expressing his excitement about getting the Panthers head job.

"For anybody that gets a job that is a dream of theirs I don't know how you start thanking people," said Spoonhour.  "Obviously I want to thank the administration - Dr. Perry, Ms. Burke and Dr. Nadler for the opportunity.  I want to also thank everybody here.  It's not like I decided I wanted to be a coach when I got to college.  This has been a dream of mine since I was in the fourth grade."

Spoonhour grew up in a basketball family with his dad Charlie a long time head coach at Missouri State, Saint Louis and UNLV.  Spoonhour played college basketball at Pittsburg State in Kansas earning his bachelor's degree in 1994.  He was an honorable mention All-Conference selection.  He then began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Central Missouri helping the team advance to two straight NCAA Division II Tournaments.

He joined his father's staff at Saint Louis in 1996 and helped the Billikens make the 1998 NCAA Tournament advancing to the second round.  He was hired as the head coach at Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, Ind., for the 2000-01 season leading the team to the Junior College National Championship with a 36-1 record.  He was named the NJCAA National Coach of the Year that season.

The success and relationships that Spoonhour has created in his career have carried over to the manner in which many other coaches speak of him. 

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said, "Eastern Illinois has hired an outstanding basketball coach.  Jay Spoonhour has won at every level of college coaching.  He is an excellent tactician and game strategist who will bring charisma not seen in many basketball programs in American."

Michigan head coach John Beilein said, "I have known Jay and his late father Charlie Spoonhour for many years, and have the utmost respect for how Jay has earned the respect in our profession as an excellent basketball coach.  Jay has been, and continues to be a student of the game and his teams' have experienced tremendous success as a result.  In my opinion this is the perfect choice for Eastern Illinois."

EIU athletic director Barbara Burke talked to coaches like Bob Huggins, John Beilein and may others during the process of hiring the Jay Spoonhour.  Again and again the people she spoke with continued to praise Jay Spoonhour not only for the type of basketball coach he was, but also the type of person.

"We were looking for someone that would be a great fit for EIU and this community and found that person in Jay Spoonhour," said Burke.  "We wanted someone that would bring a style of basketball to Lantz Arena that is exciting and fun to watch, I believe in Jay we found that.  We wanted someone that has demonstrated the ability to win and again in Jay I believe we found that."

"Coach Spoonhour brings us great opportunity, an opportunity to continue to build student-athletes in the great tradition of EIU," said EIU President Dr. William Perry.  "He brings us the opportunity for championships achieved in the right way and he brings us the opportunity to succeed at the highest level which is Division I basketball."

Winning is something that Spoonhour has been able to do at all levels of basketball.  This past season he completed his third season as the head coach at Moberly Area Community College in Missouri guiding the team to its second NJCAA Region 16 Tournament appearance in three seasons.  In four total years as a head coach at the junior college level he has amassed a career record of 100-29.  In 2004 Spoonhour was the interim head coach at UNLV guiding the Runnin' Rebels to a 6-3 record as they lost in the championship game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

After one season at Wabash Valley College, Spoonhour joined his father's staff at UNLV from 2001-04.  His father Charlie stepped down in the final month of the season giving Jay a taste of the heading coaching experience at the Division I level.  Following the 2004 season Spoonhour worked two seasons each at Missouri and Texas San Antonio before taking over as the head coach and athletic director at Moberly Area CC.

"I have been a coach, but everybody wants to be a coach at the Division I level and go against the best," Spoonhour added in his opening statements.  "You want to work at a place where it can be done with folks you want to be around.  So when it finally happens, what can you say other than you are really thankful, excited and hopeful.  I am hopeful we can do the kind of things you fans at Eastern Illinois want to see done."

A St. Louis Cardinals fan; Spoonhour used a baseball reference to explain what he sees as hope for the Panthers basketball program.

"How many of us are looking forward to baseball season.  I look forward to when pitchers and catchers report, because I'm a fan of the game," Spoonhour said.  "Tradition is at any time.  Whether its every year or saying I can't wait until the schedule comes out to see when we are playing this team or that team.  When you start expecting those types of things then it's really fun.  For folks that are Panther fans I can't wait for the time when you are saying I can't wait for this game, or we have to get there early because that stuff is fun.  We are going to play hard and we are going to have fun doing it.  It's this simple, when players are having fun, the fans are having fun and it's got to start there."

Spoonhour, 41, and his wife Nicole have three children Gracie, Charlie and Sam.