Did you know that Ohio only has one junior college with a football team? That team is the Hocking College Hawks at Hocking College. It is the only two-year school in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana that offers football and are members of the NJCAA. The college is located on a beautiful 2,300-acre campus located in Nelsonville, Ohio. Nelsonville is about a 2-hour car ride from the city of Dayton. Hocking conveniently offers on-campus housing for students as well as majors in the fields of Allied Health and Nursing, Arts, Business and Science, Natural Resources, Public Safety Service, and Workforce development.
937 Football Insider had the opportunity to sit down with the head football coach of the Hocking College Hawks, Ted Egger. Coach Egger has been the Hawks Head Coach since 2020. Prior to that, the head coach at Pearl River College in Poplarville, Mississippi for four years. He also spent time coaching at the Division II level at Concordia, Adams State, Lock Haven University, Northwoods, and the 2021 Division II National Champions Ferris State University. All in all, Coach Eggers has been coaching football at the college level for the past 22 years.
Last year, Egger led the Hawks to a 6-5 season where they lost a couple of close games. In Egger’s words, “We did a pretty good job on the field, but we did an even better job off the field. Getting guys graduated, getting guys out.” The Hawks had 32 players graduate and 24 players go on to play football at 4-year institutions. One of those players that went on to continue his career is 2020 Northmont graduate, Shaun Myers. Myers played linebacker for the Hawks. He was a JUCO preseason All-American. On February 2, 2022, Myers committed to play football at North Alabama. He said, “the experience in all was good, it taught me a lot. It was a very different environment being out in the middle of nowhere, so it was just school and football which sounds bad but being at a JUCO that’s all you need to be focusing on anyway to get where you want to be. I think that was a big reason why I went D1 because I didn’t have many distractions and I could focus on the things I needed to do. And with all the football players staying in the same building you create a lot of bonds and friendships that will last forever.”
Coach Egger actively recruits the Dayton area every year. Egger said, “it’s actually one of the first areas I go to for recruiting.” He said he looks for, “committed guys that have high character that are coming here to…first and foremost, get their degree and graduate, but have a vision of seeing themselves moving on.” Dayton has a lot of players that can benefit from what Hocking College offers. The program is structured with a daily schedule that the players must follow from 5 am workouts, film study, and practice to attending classes and study tables. According to Shaun Myers, “It is ran like a D1 football program and prepared me well.”
Overall, Hocking College has a lot to offer including the opportunity to stay in state and take advantage of the in-state tuition. Their structured program helps football players exceed in the classroom as well on the field. And Coach Egger is all about getting the kids to graduate and move on to 4-year institutions. If you or your player is a JUCO candidate, I suggest checking out Hocking College.
You can follow the Hocking College Hawks on Twitter @HockingFootball
Coach Ted Egger can be reached at eggert@hocking.edu