Northwestern head coach Michael Moynihan announced the hiring of Paul Jennison as the assistant coach for the Wildcats on June 27, 2017.
Jennison comes to Chicago’s Big Ten Team after nine seasons as both the boys and girls head soccer coach at St. Charles East High School in St. Charles, Illinois. He has also served as the goalkeeping director with the Illinois Olympic Development Program since 2016 and the Campton United Soccer Club in St. Charles since 2014 and worked at the U.S. Soccer Training Centers in Illinois and Wisconsin since 2015.
St. Charles East has experienced tremendous success with Jennison at the helm. The girls program has won back-to-back regional championships and was the state runner-up in 2014. The Saints won their conference championship in 2015 and racked up four straight regional championships from 2014-17. The boys program advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2012 and won the regional title in 2012, 2013, and 2017. Jennison has led the Saints to four conference titles.
His goalkeeping expertise is extensive with stops at various U.S. Soccer Training Centers, the Illinois ODP, the Campton United Soccer Club, Baylor University’s Summer Elite Camp, and Sports Recruiting USA.
As the goalkeeping director at Illinois ODP, Jennison was tasked with creating and implementing the curriculum, facilitating coaching development, and evaluating player development. He trained and evaluated goalkeepers and scouted national-level players at the U.S. Soccer Training Centers in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Jennison has received a number of awards during his coaching career, including the IHSSCA Section 3 Coach of the Year in 2012, the 2009 and 2012 Kane County Chronicle Men’s Coach of the Year and the 2014 Women’s Coach of the Year from the same publication.
He holds a USSF National “B” License, an NSCAA Advanced National Diploma, and an NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma, which he earned with distinction.
The Middlesbrough, England, native came to the United States to attend Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, for the 2003 and 2004 seasons, where he earned numerous awards. He went on to play at Eastern Illinois from 2005-07, where he played as a goalkeeper.
Jennison is a 2007 graduate of Eastern Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. He earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from Georgia Southern in 2014.