July 24, 2002
Jacques and Kruppe Named to Football Staff
Head football coach John Ware announced today that Kirksville native Jeff Jacques, and Niles, Ill., transplant Erik Kruppe are joining the Bulldogs' coaching staff.
Jeff Jacques joins the staff after serving as a volunteer coach in 2001. Prior to the '01 campaign, he spent two seasons as a member of the University of Missouri-Rolla Miners coaching staff.
Jacques is no stranger to Truman. Prior to his stint at UMR, he spent a year as the defensive coordinator at Kemper Military Junior College in Boonville, Mo., but was a member of the Truman defensive coaching staff for three seasons as a volunteer assistant coach before going to Boonville. He also coached football for a season at Kirksville High School as an assistant.
Though he coached running backs at Missouri-Rolla, Jacques shifted to assisting with the tight ends at Truman last year and will move over to defense in 2002 to coach the linemen. Jacques will also serve as the team's strength and conditioning coordinator.
He earned a bachelor of science degree in teaching from Buena Vista (Iowa) in 2001. Jacques and his wife, Krista ('89), have a daughter, Kelsey, who is 9-years-old, and a son, Jarrett, who is 3-years-old.
Erik Kruppe begins his first season as a fulltime coach on the Bulldog staff, but volunteered last year while teaching special education at Kirksville High School.
He will serve as linebacker coach after helping with the inside linebackers a year ago. Kruppe will also take over as film coordinator, in charge of state of the art digital film breakdown.
Kruppe earned a bachelor's degree from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1999, and completed a master's degree in special education at Northeastern Illinois University in 2001.
He coached at North Park University in Chicago from 1999-2000, and helped coach at Maine East High School in the summer of 1999.
Kruppe was a linebacker at Illinois Wesleyan from 1995-98.
As part of the staff reorganization, associate head coach Matt Copeland with move back over to offense and will now serve as the team's offensive coordinator, following a two-year hiatus to serve as defensive line coach. Copeland was an all-state quarterback at Rock Island (Ill.) High School, as well as an all-America tight end for the Bulldogs in the mid-90s. In addition, Matt Nelson will now serve as the sole defensive coordinator after sharing the job last season. He was an all-conference linebacker for the 'Dogs in the 90's as well.
In 2001, The Bulldogs completed their sixth winning season in the seven-year tenure of head coach John Ware and have enjoyed winning seasons 10 of the last 12 years. Ware's team registered eight wins for the first time since 1994. Ware has been a member of the Truman coaching staff since 1985. He has a career record of 44-32 (.579) as head coach of the Bulldogs, and is 41-17 (.707) in Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association games. Ware is a 1981 graduate of Drake University and received a masters degree from Truman in 1987.