Lindenwood AD Jason Coomer

Year Three in the OVC

(St. Louis, MO) – Lindenwood is finishing its second season as a Division 1 athletic program and in the Ohio Valley Conference. Director of Athletics Jason Coomer is working at his second OVC program and his second that transitioned from Division 2 to D1.

Coomer’s time at Southern Illinois Edwardsville saw the Cougars become a viable part of the OVC and the hiring of a successful basketball coach in Brian Barone. Two years ago he moved across the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to help the St. Charles, Missouri-based university and things are going well.

While there are growing pains, the Lion athletic program is moving forward. Multiple sports are enjoying competitive success and Lindenwood is experiencing classroom growth. Focusing on basketball, the men’s team qualified for the conference tournament in 2023 but missed a trip to Evansville last year. The women’s team is yet to join the fun in Indiana.

The Patience of Jason Coomer

After fourteen years at SIUE, Coomer’s expertise was needed at Lindenwood. He wasn’t looking to leave Edwardsville, but was so impressed by the infrastructure, leadership and campus at Lindenwood that he knew the shift would be a good one.

Coomer is both aggressive and patient. There are constant improvements taking place at the beautiful Lindenwood campus and marketing deals are exploding. However, he is preaching patience to his coaches about scoreboard success. Meanwhile, he’s building an extremely deep collection of coaches that will likely bring about great results.

Coomer believes Lindenwood is ahead of schedule for a second-year, Division 1 athletics program.

The ice hockey team has enjoyed some great success. Volleyball has made a splash. Lindenwood soccer is now coached by a former assistant from national collegiate power Saint Louis University and improvements at ‘The Bob’ (the Hyland Center) will be noticeable.

Jason Coomer – Men’s Hoops

While Lindenwood fell from eleven wins in its first D1 season to nine last year, Coomer believes building the foundation is critical. The Lions are 20-43 at the D1 level and the OVC is mandating a reduction of sub-D1 games. Six of the Lions’ 20 victories have come against that level of competition.

Five of their 43 losses have come at the hands of ‘power conference’ schools.

Kyle Gerdeman’s team won back-to-back late season overtime thrillers to qualify for the 2023 OVC Tournament, but missed the event last season. The Lions’ two-year OVC record is 9-27.

While rosters are still in flux for every college basketball team, the Lions’ lineup shows great promise. One of last season’s top recruits, Jordan Wildy is healthy after missing last season with a knee injury. Two of Missouri’s top ten prep players have signed with LU and Gerdeman has signed two proven D1 contributors, a D2 star and a prolific junior college scorer.

Jadis Jones is a top 300 player nationally and rated as the Show Me State’s second best player. The 6’5 New Madrid County grad was also named the Class 3, Player of the Year. Cardinal Ritter point guard Clayton Jackson is ranked tenth in Missouri and signed last fall.

Markeith Browning (9.6 ppg at Milwaukee) and Reggie Bass (8.2 ppg at Kent State) are proven D1 contributors. Another local product Anias Futrell averaged nearly 18 points-per-game for D2 Christian Brothers College. He is a McCluer High School (St. Louis County) grad. Browning, Bass and Futrell are all bigger guards with offensive skills.

Coomer is excited about this recruiting class and expects the Lions to improve, but is serious about building a solid program rather than grabbing a quick fix.

Lions’ Women’s Hoops

After a two-win season in 2022-23, Coomer hired Drury University’s Amy Eagan to replace Katie Falco. Lindenwood’s baby Lions won seven games last year. Eagan’s roster included nine freshmen and eight of their 21 losses came by seven or fewer points.

The second-year head coach is a proven winner, accumulating 274 wins in fourteen previous seasons. During her last four D2 campaigns, Eagan led her teams to the D2 national tournament and they earned three conference championships.

Eagan is hitting the recruiting trail and Coomer believes his talented coach will force OVC basketball fans to take notice of the Lindenwood program.

Changing Landscape

With over 2,000 men’s basketball players entering the portal, NIL money seemingly ruling college athletics, the sports landscape is changing. Jason Coomer knows his program has to continually adjust and grow.

Lindenwood isn’t majoring on a ‘collective’ model, but are working strongly with their student athletes to advise and encourage their NIL opportunities. They are developing and on-line portal for the players’ use.

Coomer insists Lindenwood will stay nimble in the compensation space.

Coomer says the players are looking at the bottom line. There are several compensation streams for players. ‘Alston money’, ‘full cost of attendance’ are other terms we hear. Lindenwood is attempting to be creative in all of those spaces. Coomer realizes his university is competing with other ‘mid-majors’ and not what he calls the ‘power two’ leagues.

Coomer landed a huge corporate partner in Nevco Sports. The two entities have entered into a multi-year sports marketing and multimedia rights agreement. Nevco is improving signage and scoreboards all over the Lindenwood campus and will create sponsorship opportunities around Lions’ athletics. It is a bold move forward for Coomer and the university as they become Nevco’s first Division 1 client.

While college athletics goes through massive changes and conference realignment are the talk of virtually every sports talk show, Lindenwood and the OVC are enjoying a time of relative stability and growth.

Commissioner Beth DeBauche and the university presidents seem to be walking a solid path of steady growth without too much overreach in what they are building. Jason Coomer is helping put Lindenwood University on the map in a very solid and patient way.

You’re invited to watch our entire conversation on YouTube or listen to it at Valley Hoops Insider Podcasts.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo courtesy of Coomer’s X.com feed.