Jason Francis serves as Assistant Coach Men's and Women's Track and Field/Academic Coordinator for the Missouri Southern State University track & field programs. He enters his 8th season (2024-25) coaching the Sprints, Hurdles, High Jump, & Combined Events.
Since joining the MSSU staff in 2017, Francis has coached the Lion Sprints/Hurdles/High Jump/Combined Events to 53 All-MIAA performances, including 18 conference champions, one (Current) MIAA Championship meet records, and 59 MSSU school records broken. Along with success at the conference level, Francis has seen 47 national qualifiers and 30 All-American performances. Francis has coached six athletes to entries on the NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor All-Time Top 25 lists.
He helped guide the Missouri Southern Men to the 2020 MIAA Indoor Conference Championship and the Women's 2021 Outdoor Conference Championship team title.
Francis also helped lead the Missouri Southern Men to two fourth-place team finishes at the 2023 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships—a program first for the men—and the 2024 NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships. In 2020, Francis was honored as the NCAA Women's Regional Assistant Coach of the Year.
He spent five years as the head women's track and field coach at the University of Dayton, where he helped lead the team to two separate second-place finishes in the Atlantic 10.
His student-athletes won 21 Atlantic 10 Individual Championships, and Francis had six athletes qualify for the NCAA East Prelims. The Flyers earned the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honor five times and had eight All-Academic Individuals. The team GPA at Dayton was 3.48 during his tenure.
Prior to Dayton, Francis was the assistant track and field coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for seven years. He focused on sprints and hurdles, as well as coaching the jumps, 800m, and combined events. While there, the team won seven straight men's Indoor and Outdoor Horizon League Championships and had two NCAA National Qualifiers with 25 NCAA National First Round qualifiers. Altogether, the men's and women's teams at Milwaukee won 22 Horizon League Championships, and Francis helped guide the team to over 150 individual Horizon Titles. The Milwaukee men's team still holds the third-longest Division I Conference Championship streak with 16 straight titles.
Prior to Milwaukee, Francis spent one year as an assistant pole-vault coach at Lewis University, helping coach two Division II National Champions and six Division II All-Americans.
Francis' first coaching stop came at his alma mater, Indiana State, where he spent two years as an assistant coach with the Sycamores, helping to coach the men's and women's pole vault.
A double graduate of Indiana State, Francis earned a BS degree in sports science and a MA in exercise science. As a track and field athlete at Indiana State, Francis was a four-time All-MVC honoree and was a champion in the decathlon, also helping ISU to a team title during his playing tenure. Francis has his USTFCCA Strength and Conditioning Specialist Certification, USATF Level One Coaches Certification, USATF Level 2 Coaches Certifications in Jumps, Sprints, Hurdles & Relays, Combined Events, Throws and has completed the USATF Instructor Training Course.
Jason and his wife Stephanie live in Joplin along with her two children, Byler and Brogan.
