Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | Softball
Ryan Jacobs Named UNI Softball Coach
Ryan Jacobs has been hired as head softball coach at the University of Northern Iowa, UNI director of athletics Rick Hartzell announced today.  Jacobs becomes the fifth Panther softball coach since the program’s inception in 1974.
 
Jacobs has served as head softball coach at Cedar Falls High School since 2004, and was assistant baseball coach at UNI from 2001 through 2005.  He will continue to serve as softball coach at CFHS through the conclusion of its 2007 season, after which he will take over as UNI’s head coach. 
  
Over the past four seasons, Jacobs has guided Cedar Falls High School to a 90-52 cumulative record.  Last year’s Tigers squad finished with a 32-10 mark – the second-best record in school history – and was ranked 15th in Iowa’s Class 4A.  Cedar Falls is currently 14-3 this season and ranked eighth in 4A.  Jacobs has coached six first-team all-Mississippi Valley Conference players, including one conference player of the year, as well as five first-team all-district players and four all-state players.
 
Jacobs served as an assistant on Rick Heller’s baseball staff at UNI from 2001-05, specializing in coaching the catchers and hitters.  He coordinated Panther camps and clinics and served as the team’s first base coach.  UNI recorded an average of 29 wins per season while Jacobs was on staff, including a school-record 35 victories and an NCAA tournament appearance in 2001.
 
A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the 31-year-old Jacobs was a standout prep baseball player at Cedar Rapids Regis High School.  He was named both the Mississippi Valley Conference Player of the Year and the Iowa Legion Player of the Year in 1994.  He played two seasons for UNI (1997-98), earning honorable mention All-Missouri Valley Conference honors in ’97.  That season, he helped the Panthers to a then-school record 32 wins and best-ever second-place finish in the MVC.  He received his bachelor’s degree in general studies from UNI in 1999, and played professional baseball for one year after graduation.
 
Jacobs’ wife, Kelley, is a UNI assistant women’s basketball coach, and they have two daughters, Haley (1) and Emma (born May 2007).
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