Damon Francis enters his second season as an assistant coach at FDU. Previously, Francis was the assistant coach at Missouri State-West Plains Plains in West Plains, MO. He helped coached the Grizzlies to their best record in school history (31-4), while taking the team to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament for the first time in school history. MSWP was also ranked No. 1 in the country over the final five weeks of the season, the first time in school history the team was ranked at the top.
Before coaching at MSWP, Francis was a player, then assistant coach/head junior varsity coach at Ouachita Baptist University, a Gulf South Conference school in Arkadelphia, AR, for six years. As a coach, he helped lead them to the semifinals of the NCAA South Region Tournament. Along the way, Francis helped recruit and coach eight All-Conference performers. He served as the Tigers’ student assistant coach from 2005-2006, graduate assistant coach from 2006-2007 and as assistant coach/head junior varsity coach from 2007-2009. Francis also coached the top Ohio AAU team, the All-Ohio Red, for two years.
Francis earned his B.A. in Kinesiology from Ouachita Baptist in 2005. He will earn his master’s degree from the United States Sports Academy after completing two more classes.
As a player, Francis lead OBU to two straight second-place finishes in the Gulf South West. Before enrolling at Ouachita, he attended Cincinnati State Community College, a Division I NJCAA school at the time, and helped the team win the Region 12 regular season championship. Francis received an Associate of Arts degree from Cincinnati State.
A 2001 graduate of Springboro High School, Francis was a two-time Mid-Miami League Player of the Year (2000, 2001) and participated in the 2001 Ohio/Kentucky and Ohio/West Virginia All-Star Games. He set the school record in career assists and game assists and is seventh all time in assists in the state of Ohio. Francis was inducted into his high school’s Hall of Fame in February 2010.
