Contact Coach Sheska
E-mail: jsheska@po-box.esu.edu
Phone: (570) 422-3303

Head coach Jerry Sheska enters his 28th season at East Stroudsburg University as one of five coaches in NCAA Division II men's soccer history, and one of 26 in NCAA history, with 400 career victories.

A 1999 inductee into the ESU Athletic Hall of Fame as both a player and coach, Sheska has led his alma mater to 15 PSAC championships and 16 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances in his 27 seasons.

The Warriors scored two goals in the final 11 minutes for a 2-1 comeback victory at West Chester for Sheska's 400th career win last fall. ESU finished the season with a 15-7 record and played in both the PSAC and NCAA Tournaments, falling in overtime in both games.

Sheska has coached 65 All-PSAC selections, including 10 Players of the Year, and 15 All-Americans during his career. Back Danny Drago enters his senior season with two All-America honors and looks to join forward Mike Feniger (1994-96) and wing Ernest Howe (1956, 1958, 1960) as the only three-time All-Americans in school history.

Sheska led ESU to back-to-back PSAC championships in 2006 and 2007, the most recent of the Warriors' 15 conference titles under Sheska and 19 in school history. The Warriors are 15-4 in PSAC title games under Sheska, and have won the last 13 championship games in which they have appeared.

The 2007 Warriors posted a 19-3-1 record to tie the school record for wins set by the 2003 team and were the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Region of the NCAA Tournament before falling in the first round of the postseason.

Sheska earned Division II Northeast Region Coach of the Year honors in 2007 and was the PSAC Coach of the Year in 2006. He has claimed 16 coach of the year awards during his career - eight from the PSAC, and eight at the regional level.

He is fourth among active Division II coaches with 400 victories and third with a .726 winning percentage going into the 2009 season.

Sheska has led ESU to 25 consecutive winning seasons and has finished below .500 just once in his career, in his inaugural season
in 1982. Since then, his teams have won at least 10 games in all but one season, and have won 16 or more games in 12 of the past 15 years.

ESU has qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament in all but three seasons since 1994. The Warriors' best finish was an appearance in the Final Four in 2000, when they finished the year ranked third in the nation.

The 2000 Final Four squad came in the middle of an unprecedented stretch of seven straight PSAC championships from 1997-2003, and the Warriors advanced past the first round of the NCAA tournament in four of those seasons - 1997, 2000, 2002 and 2003.

ESU's most recent postseason win was a 2-1 decision over New York Institute of Technology in the first round in 2003, a victory which set the school record with 19 wins. The 1997 and 2002 teams advanced to the national quarterfinals, as did the 1988 club that delivered Sheska's first postseason victory.

Sheska's coaching career at ESU also features three seasons as the first head coach of the women's soccer program from 1992-94. He posted a 39-10-2 record in three seasons and was the PSAC Coach of the Year for both men's and women's soccer in 1994, when he won conference championships in both sports. His men's team had an 18-4 record while the women went 18-2 to earn the PSAC's first-ever championship in the sport. The 1994 women's soccer team was inducted into the ESU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

A 1968 graduate of ESU, Sheska played three years of varsity soccer for the Warriors as a midfielder and back. He was a member of ESU's 1965 team that reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I Soccer Tournament before losing to Michigan State. He was co-captain of the 1967 team.

He also competed in baseball for three years at ESU as a catcher and first baseman. He later played semi-professional baseball for seven years.

After graduation, the Bethlehem, Pa. native served in the United States Army, including a tour of duty as an infantry sergeant in Vietnam.

Sheska coached soccer for 10 years at Morris Knolls High School in Denville, N.J. before coming to ESU. He was head coach for three years, and his final team in 1981 finished with a 17-3-1 record.

His coaching background also includes experience as a professional coach in the American Soccer League. He holds a U.S. Soccer Federation "A" coaching license.

A faculty member at ESU, Sheska teaches both undergraduate and graduate classes in sport studies and exercise science. He holds bachelor's and Master's degrees in Health and Physical Education from ESU and a Ph.D. from Madison University.