Bringing more than 25 years of collegiate and professional coaching success to Penn State, Jeff Cook enters his second year at the helm of the storied men's soccer program in 2019. He was named the 12th head coach on Jan. 2, 2018.
In his first season at Penn State in 2018, Cook led the Nittany Lions to a 6-9-2 record and a 3-3-2 record in Big Ten play. The Nittany Lion defense posted six clean sheets in 2018, the most since the 2015 season.
Cook coached midfielder Aaron Molloy to Second Team All-Big Ten honors as well as Third Team All-North regional honors from the United Soccer Coaches.
The 2018 roster saw success academically with a cumulative 3.32 team grade-point average in the fall semester under Cook, the top men's team GPA at Penn State.
Cook came to Happy Valley with 27 years of coaching experience, including the previous four-plus years coaching professionally with the Philadelphia Union Academy and Bethlehem Steel FC.
A native of Springfield, Mass., Cook was recruited by the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer (MLS) in April 2013 to assist in running its youth development program, with the goal of producing homegrown professional soccer players. While at the Union, Cook also served as the first assistant coach of the Union's United Soccer League (USL) affiliate and development team, Bethlehem Steel FC, and as the head coach of the U-19 Union Academy team.
As the first assistant coach with Bethlehem Steel FC, Cook was responsible for match preparations, designing and executing training sessions, video analysis and coordinating player movement between the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, the USL squad and the Union first team. Cook was instrumental in the development of the club's first two "homegrown players" since the founding of the full-time academy program.
As the club's U-19 head coach, Cook guided the squad to the 2016-17 USSDA Atlantic Division title and a third-place finish in the national standings. Cook was also the head coach of the club's U-17 squad that finished second in the 2015-16 national standings and qualified for the Elite stage of the MLS Youth Cup that season.
Prior to coaching professionally, Cook spent 17 years as a Division I head coach, leading Dartmouth College for 12 seasons (2001-12), in addition to five years as the head coach at the University of Cincinnati (1996-2000).
Cook directed Dartmouth to five Ivy League Championships (2002, '04, '05, '08, '11) and seven NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in 2008 and 2010. The Big Green were among only 12 programs nationally to qualify for five consecutive NCAA Tournaments and earned No. 16 national seeds in 2005 and 2008.
Cook led the coaching and development of 53 All-Ivy players, two All-Americans and a trio of Scholar-Athlete All-Americans at Dartmouth. He also directed the men's soccer student-athletes to numerous academic achievements, including earning the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's Team Academic Achievement Award for five consecutive seasons and seeing the Big Green lead all Division I programs one year with a 3.46 grade-point average.
From 1996-2000, Cook served as the head coach at Cincinnati, guiding the Bearcats to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 1998 and posting the program's most wins since 1989 (12). That season, Cincinnati upset top-ranked SMU and went 5-1 in its last six regular season matches.
The 1997 Conference USA Coach of the Year, Cook had three selections on the C-USA All-Freshman Team, which included two-time All-American and Cincinnati Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Andrew Kean.
Academic excellence was a focus for Cook and his Bearcat program as he also developed Cincinnati's first NSCAA Scholar-Athlete All-American.
A graduate of Bates College, Cook began his coaching career as an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts. He then led Wheaton College as head coach from 1991-93, posting records of 13-6-1 and 12-6-2 his last two seasons and earning ECAC Tournament berths. Cook served as a Dartmouth assistant coach in 1994-95 before matriculating to Cincinnati as head coach.
Cook and his wife, Christina, have two sons, Liam, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019, and Kieron, who is a freshman at Penn State.