Ed Meierkort

Ed Meierkort (born March 24, 1959) is an American football coach. He was head football coach at the University of South Dakota, a position he held from the 2004 through the 2011 seasons. Meierkort served as the head football coach at the University of Wisconsin–Stout from 1993 to 2003.

Biography

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Meierkort is a graduate of South Dakota State University and Dakota Wesleyan University. He is married with two children.

Career

Meierkort began his coaching career at Dakota Wesleyan, where he also served as head baseball coach. From there he served as a graduate assistant at South Dakota State before moving on to Southwest Minnesota State University, where he held various positions from 1983 to 1993.

He began his head football coaching career at the University of Wisconsin–Stout in 1993. During his tenure there, he coached 16 All-Americans and two future NFL players. In 2000, the team achieved a #5 national ranking. That year, Meierkort was named Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and AFCA Region 5 Coach of the Year and was a finalist for AFCA National Coach of the Year.

Meierkort was named head coach of the Coyotes in 2004. He has overseen the program's elevation from the NCAA Division II rank to Division I. The team's first victory against a Division I opponent came against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds of the FCS on November 15, 2008. In 2010, the program achieved its first win against an FBS opponent with a victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers. In his last game as South Dakota's coach his team blew a 20 point halftime lead against the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

In 2012, after he was fired from South Dakota University, he went to coach for Celebration high school in Central Florida. In 2011, the Storm, went 0-10. He made a promise to turn the program around but failed to do so his first year, going 0-10 and losing by an average of 45-7. Next year he will turn the program around beginning in the weight room.