The Eastern women’s soccer team added a new member to its staff in the off-season. Assistant coach Jason Cherry joined the Panther staff last May and is now hoping to lead the team back to the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

Head coach Summer Perala said the team has given Cherry a warm welcome since he’s come aboard.

“The players love him,” she said. “He brings such a different energy. He is one of those guys who is low-key almost 99 percent of the time, but if you don’t do what we’re asking you to do, he will jump on you and make sure you’re stepping up your game.”

Cherry was an assistant at Eastern Carolina last season, where the Pirates finished with a record of 11-8-1, and advanced to the Conference USA Tournament Semifinals, a place Eastern Carolina had not been since 2008.

Prior to his work at Eastern Carolina, Cherry worked as the top assistant at Western Illinois, where he also received his bachelor’s degree in general studies in the spring of 2011.

In his three years at Western, Cherry helped the Leathernecks to a 26-22-9 record overall, and a 15-9-2 record in the Summit League. Cherry helped the team post its second lowest goals-against average (0.84) and tied the record for most shut-outs in school history (9) during the 2010 season.

Prior to Western, Cherry was an assistant coach at Bethel College from 2005 to 2008, where he coached goalkeepers.

Cherry, a South Bend, Ind., native, played collegiality at Goshen College, a small Mennonite liberal arts school in northern Indiana. He played there from 1993 to 1994.

“The girls like him because he brings a different energy,” Perala said. “Without lack of a better term, he’s goofy, but he will make sure you step to the line every single time.”

Aside from his experience coaching at the collegiate level, Cherry has also coached club teams. He was head coach of the Junior Irish Soccer Club in South Bend, as well as the head coach of the Indiana Invaders. Cherry also coached 10 years at the high school level, working as an assistant.

Perala, also a graduate of Western, said she knew Cherry from his time when he was a coach there, and says that experience has helped him become a better coach.

“He gets it from being involved in a program that maybe you don’t have the highest level of resources, but you make due with what you’ve got and you do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

After coaching two matches on the road, Cherry will coach his first match at Lakeside Field at 3:00 p.m. Friday, when the Panthers (0-2) take on Northern Iowa (1-1).

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2821 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.