Josh Oakley has left Eastern’s men’s soccer program after two years as head coach, athletic director Tom Michael said.  

Oakley said he felt frustrated with a lack of funding and support for the program. He said he was overwhelmed after running the day-to-day operations of the team during the season as well as the recruiting without the help of a full-time assistant.  

“There’s multiple chains that I just feel like neglected some very key ideas and key things needed to run a program,” Oakley said.  

Oakley said the decision was made in September when his wife Jasmine Oakley received a promotion at her sales job and stated that he informed Michael he would leave the program in early October.  

Josh Oakley wanted to keep that information between him and the athletic department, he said, until his contract was officially done at the end of December. 

During his two years as head coach, the men’s soccer team did not have a full-time assistant coach, instead relying on graduate assistants to fill the role of an assistant coach. During the 2024 season, Oakley’s assistant was PJ Allen, a player for Eastern during the 2023 season.  

“After being a coach so dedicated to changing the path of the team with energy and a supreme underdog mentality, I became uninspired by a thorough lack of the leadership advocating for the bare minimums and essential needs of a Division I sports program,” he said. 

During Oakley’s two years as head coach, Eastern was 6-22-7. In 2023, Eastern qualified for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, advancing past Liberty University to the semifinals on penalty kicks. The advancement in the OVC Tournament marked the first time an Eastern team advanced in a postseason tournament in 16 years, according to Oakley.  

The next head coach will be Eastern’s sixth in the past 11 years. Michael was unable to confirm if the new head coach would have a full-time assistant but stated that there are ongoing conversations about how to fund the program going forward. 

“We just have to look at the overall budget and figure out where we can make some adjustments,” Michael said.  

The Panthers currently have 13 players on the active 2025 roster. One of them, junior midfielder Kyle Kimberling, said it was extremely difficult to operate day to day without a full-time assistant coach.  

“I’m very grateful for PJ [Allen], who was a grad assistant and had to do more than he was probably originally told,” Kimberling said. “But if you look at almost every other team in the country, it doesn’t matter what level they’re at, Power Five or [lower], there’s an assistant coach.” 

According to Kimberling, having an assistant coach is critical for a sport like soccer because it gives the head coach another set of eyes and helps run practices more efficiently.  

“You can’t coach 27 guys at once,” Kimberling said. “There’s a basketball team that has about 18 players, and I know at least two coaches, so I don’t understand why it was any different in that aspect.” 

The job listing for a new head coach is posted on Eastern’s website. According to Michael, Eastern is close to filling the position.  

“The search is going well, and I hope we can have that wrapped up very soon,” Michael said. “We’ve had a lot of interest in it.” 

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.