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Jeff Cook
Bringing more than 25 years of collegiate and professional coaching success to Penn State, Jeff Cook enters his fifth year at the helm of the storied men’s soccer program in 2022. He was named the 12th head coach in program history on Jan. 2, 2018.
As a collegiate head coach, Cook has led his teams to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and six conference championship titles. He has coached 74 all-conference selections, seven All-Americans, and eight Scholar All-Americans. Cook picked up his 200th career win as a collegiate head coach on Feb. 23, 2021 as the Nittany Lions defeated Rutgers, 2-1, on the road. He now holds a career record of 220-160-57 (.569).
Cook led Penn State to an historic season in 2021 on the back heels of a successful spring campaign played during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nittany Lions captured both the Big Ten Regular Season and Big Ten Tournament championship crowns and advanced to their third-straight NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1993-95. For that, Cook was named the 2021 Big Ten Coach of the Year, and the staff earned 2021 United Soccer Coaches North Region Staff of the Year nods.
The Nittany Lions’ Big Ten Tournament title was the program’s first since 2005 after advancing to their second-straight title game for the first time since 2010-11. The defense shut out every team in the three games en route to the trophy, while the offense outscored opponents 7-0 for the largest goal margin in tournament history.
Cook coached sophomore Peter Mangione to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year honors, the program’s first conference Offensive Player of the Year nod since Connor Maloney in 2014. It marks the second Big Ten Player of the Year honor under Cook’s tutelage, joining Aaron Molloy’s Midfielder of the Year award in 2019. Four other players earned All-Big Ten honors, including redshirt senior defender Brandon Hackenberg’s third consecutive first-team nod to become the first defender in program history to do so.
The team also finished ranked No. 24 in the final rankings from United Soccer Coaches. It marked the first time since at least 1996 with three consecutive top-25 finishes.
In an unprecedented 2020 season postponed and played in spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook kept the Nittany Lions prepared as the team continued to grow its presence in the national spotlight. Cook’s squad finished with a 9-2-2 overall record and a 6-1-1 record in Big Ten Conference play for their second-straight runner-up finish.
The Nittany Lions advanced to their first Big Ten Tournament championship game since 2011, narrowly losing the title to Indiana on penalty kicks. Penn State then earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for its second consecutive appearance, eventually defeating UMass in the second round, 4-1, to advance to its first Sweet Sixteen since 2013.
Offensively, the Nittany Lions scored 28 goals in the shortened season for an average 2.15 per game, a mark that was first in the conference and 13th nationally. The team concluded the 2020-21 season ranked No. 11, the program’s highest final-season ranking since 2005.
Cook coached redshirt senior midfielder Pierre Reedy and junior forward Danny Bloyou to third team All-America status in 2020-21, as well as first team All-Big Ten honors. Reedy was also named a Big Ten Medal of Honor recipient, the conference’s most exclusive award. Cook also helped redshirt senior defender Brandon Hackenberg to his second-straight first team All-Big Ten nod while Hackenberg was drafted 22nd overall in the first round of the 2021 MLS SuperDraft to Orlando City SC.
In the classroom, the 2020-21 roster saw a program-record 19 student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. Reedy, Hackenberg and junior midfielder Seth Kuhn all earned Scholar All-America accolades from United Soccer Coaches, a first for the program since 2004. Reedy was also named as a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American, the program’s first since 2009.
Cook started to bring the Nittany Lions back into the national spotlight during the 2019 season with a 12-4-3 overall record and a second-place 6-1-1 Big Ten Conference record.
Penn State made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014 and earned a first-round bye with a No. 15 national seeding. The team concluded the 2019 season ranked No. 18, the first final-season ranking since 2013.
Cook led senior midfielder Aaron Molloy to an outstanding final collegiate season in 2019. Molloy was named Big Ten Midfielder of the Year, first team All-Big Ten, second team All-American, and MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist. He was then drafted 16th overall in the first round of the 2020 MLS SuperDraft to the Portland Timbers. Cook also coached freshman forward Liam Butts and redshirt junior Brandon Hackenberg to first team All-Big Ten honors.
The roster for the 2019-20 school year earned a Team Academic Award from United Soccer Coaches for the second-straight year under Cook’s tutelage and 10th all-time.
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 junior midfielder Aaron Molloy to second team All-Big Ten honors as well as third team All-North Region honors from 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 the Division I programs one year with a 3.46 GPA.
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 junior at Penn State.
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