Jay Spoonhour

Jay Spoonhour is a well-established college basketball coach. You can currently find him on the sidelines as the head coach at Eastern Illinois. Growing up in Springfield, Missouri throughout the 1970’s, Spoonhour was an athlete himself throughout his early days. He played for Pittsburgh State from 1990 to 1994 before obtaining his first coaching position as a graduate assistant at Central Missouri State. Spoonhour obtained several other assistant coaching positions throughout the years at a variety of schools, including Saint Louis, Valparaiso, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Missouri and the University of Texas at San Antonio. He was an interim head coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for the 2004 season. Spoonhour also obtained two head coaching positions at community colleges, including Wabash Valley College and Moberly Area CC. He has since been guiding the Panthers to success since 2012 at Eastern Illinois. During his first season as the Panthers’ head coach, Spoonhour led the team to the conference tournament for the first time in three years. He continues to shape the lives of collegiate athletes with his wisdom and experience gathered over the years.