Following up on something that I first mentioned in the Daily Dirt on Tuesday…Jabon Fleegle has been officially hired as the head men’s basketball coach at D3 Messiah University. Here’s the release:

On Wednesday afternoon, the Messiah University Athletic Department announced the hiring of Jacob Fleegle as the new head coach of the Messiah University men’s basketball program. Fleegle steps into the role on June 1 after spending the last four seasons as the Assistant Coach at Emory University.
 
As before mentioned, Fleegle spent the last four season as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Emory University. Fleegle was promoted to Associate Head Coach this March, after Emory had an excellent season, finishing fifth in the d3hoops.com final poll and making it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Fleegle also helped Emory achieve a 72-30 overall record with three trips to the National Tournament and one Staff of the Year honors in 2022. Fleegle also coached one first-team All-American, one UAA Player of the Year, one UAA Rookie of the Year, three All-Region players, and three 1,000-point scorers.
 
Before his time at Emory, Fleegle was an associate head coach for a season and an assistant coach at Juniata College for two seasons and assisted at Carnegie Mellon for a season. During his time at Juniata, he helped lead the Eagles to their first conference tournament in four seasons and coached three All-Conference selections.
 
Fleegle played and then served as a graduate assistant at Waynesburg University. During his playing time for the Yellow Jackets, Fleegle started in 102 games and scored 1070 career points and grabbed 438 career rebounds. Fleegle was also a captain for three seasons and a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree once, while making Waynesburg’s Dean List in every semester. As a graduate assistant, Fleegle helped the Yellow Jackets have three All-PAC honorees and one 1,000-point scorer.
 
Fleegle has also helped with many camps around every stop he has made as assistant coach. He also has worked camps with Michigan State University, VCU, University of Dayton, and University of Pennsylvania.
 
From Executive Director of Athletics Sarah Gustin-Hamrock, “Jacob emerged from a deeply talented pool of candidates by demonstrating his commitment to discipleship and faith-formation and his basketball expertise. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Messiah community. With his proven track record at Emory, Juniata, and Carnegie Melon, coupled with his exceptional character and leadership skills, he is the perfect fit to guide our program into a new era. His commitment to developing student-athletes both on and off the court will inspire our team and resonate with our community.”
 
From Jacob Fleegle, “I want to thank Sarah Gustin-Hamrock and the rest of the Messiah Athletics Department for the opportunity to join the Messiah family! My wife Megan, our daughter Lucy and I are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in this next chapter. I can’t wait to get to work with the players and begin the process of building together and growing as a team. As a staff, developing our players spiritually, academically and athletically will be a top priority. I am very grateful for my time at Emory, and I know that God has opened this door to come back to Pennsylvania and I am looking forward to getting to work!”