Joe Jaketic Position: Head Coach Experience: 4th Season

Entering his fifth season as cross country coach, Joe Jaketic has rebuilt the cross country program and it all stems from his dedication to his alma mater.

A Cleveland State graduate in 1972, Jaketic has never been able to shake his enthusiasm for the Vikings, and that has truly carried over into his head coaching career.

Last season, injuries to a number of key runners forced Jaketic to use a youthful squad of several freshman that were able to gain experience at races.

Two seasons ago, Jaketic guided the squad to a ninth place finish at the Horizon League Championships which came on the heels of an eighth place finish in 2006. It marked the first time since the 1996-97 MCC Championships that CSU finished ahead of a league foe in back-to-back seasons.

Prior to becoming head coach, Jaketic served as the equipment manager for CSU athletics. He retired from that position in December of 2008, after 37 years, and oversaw the ups and the downs of Viking athletics. Jaketic ran cross country at Maple Heights High School and spent time running at Ohio University before transferring to run cross country and track at Cleveland State.

While a student at CSU, Jaketic was a member of the Viking cross country team and spent two years in the equipment room as a part-time job before being offered the equipment manager position in 1972.

A native of Maple Heights, Jaketic has a personal philosophy that academics come first in his program, and that has showed, as his team is consistently near the top of the Horizon League in GPA and has won the Academic Progress Rate Award in 2008 and 2009.