Illinois Wesleyan: Ryan Lakin

Ryan Lakin

In 2008, Ryan Lakin will begin his fourth season as Illinois Wesleyan University's men's soccer coach. A three-time "Coach of the Year" in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while at Millikin (1998, 1999, 2001), Lakin became IWU head men's soccer coach in June 2005.

In three seasons, his Titan squads have compiled an overall record of 20-28-6 (.426 winning percentage) and have been 8-9-4 (.476) in CCIW action, including a thrilling 2005 win over nationally-ranked Wheaton. He has coached ten IWU players who have earned all-conference honors.
His combined six-year coaching career totals are 74-57-9 overall (.561) and 25-21-5 (.539) in the league.

A 1995 graduate of Illinois State University, Lakin was the men's and women's soccer coach at Millikin from 1998 to 2002. His men's teams compiled a record of 54-29-3 (.645) in five seasons with a league co-championship in 2001.

His Big Blue women's teams were 27-60-4 overall (.319) and 4-31 in the CCIW (.114) over the same period.

After playing soccer and basketball at St. Charles, Ill., High School, Lakin was a soccer letterman at Illinois State and earned "Most Improved Player" for the 1992 Redbirds team and was the 1993 team captain. He was chosen to the Missouri Valley Conference all-league and all-tournament squads. He was named to the all-Midwest region team.

He was an assistant coach for the Lincoln College men's soccer team in 1994 and was director of coaching for the Bloomington-Normal Soccer Club from 1995 to 1998, when he started at Millikin.

Lakin was assistant director of coaching at Barrington (Ill.) Area Soccer Association and FC Barrington, where he was responsible for the operation and oversight of 2,000 recreational players, 35 travel teams and 15 staff coaches.

He is also part of the Olympic Development coaching staff and an instructor on the coaching education staff for the State of Illinois. With the Illinois Youth Soccer Association and FC Barrington, Lakin co-developed and co-instructed the first pilot program for the development of a recreational coaching license, which will eventually be implemented throughout the state, region and national levels.

Lakin also serves as assistant women's basketball coach at IWU.

Men

Year	School	Overall Record	CCIW Record
1998	Millikin	8-11-0	1-5-0
1999	Millikin	11-4-0	3-2-1
2000	Millikin	15-1-0	5-1-0
2001	Millikin	12-4-0	5-1-0
2002	Millikin	8-9-0	3-3-0
	Millikin Totals	54-29-3 (.645)	17-12-1 (.583)
2005	IWU	7-7-4	1-3-3
2006	IWU	7-10-1	3-3-1
2007	IWU	6-11-1	4-3
2008	IWU	8-8-2	5-2
	IWU Totals	28-36-8 (.444)	13-11-4 (.536)
	Overall Totals	82-65-11 (.554)	30-23-5 (.560)

Women

Year	School	Overall Record	CCIW Record
1998	Millikin	4-12-0	0-7-0
1999	Millikin	7-12-0	0-7-0
2000	Millikin	6-12-0	1-6-0
2001	Millikin	5-14-1	1-6-0
2002	Millikin	5-10-2	2-5-0
	Totals	27-60-4 (.319)	4-31-0 (.114)

Chad Jones

Chad Jones joined the IWU men's soccer staff in 2008 with a wide range of experience as a soccer coach. A soccer player at Millikin from 1990-94, Jones was the varsity boys and girls coach at Decatur MacArthur High School from 1995-2000 and was Decatur Herald & Review "Coach of the Year" in 1998 and 1999. He was an assistant coach at Millikin in 2000 and 2001, working with Ryan Lakin, when the Big Blue won their first conference soccer championship. Jones was the director of soccer at the Midstate Soccer Club and Academy in Decatur from 2002 to 2007 while also working as a volunteer assistant men's soccer coach at Eastern Illinois University. Since 2007 Jones has been executive director of soccer at the Springfield Area Soccer Association. He is a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, the Illinois Youth Soccer Association and the United States Soccer Foundation.