Eric VanHeusen just completed his third season on the Ave Maria football staff. He serves as the assistant to the head coach, a role he moved into after two seasons as the AMU offensive coordinator.
During his 18 years as a football coach, he has been an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator, as well as a position coach for defensive line, quarterbacks, tight ends, defensive backs, linebackers, offensive line, and running backs. Â
Prior to coming to Ave Maria, VanHeusen most recently served as the special teams coordinator and defensive line coach for Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri. Prior to that, VanHeusen coached under Jim Fassel for the Las Vegas Locomotives in the United Football League for five seasons. During that span, the Locomotives won two UFL championships, and VanHeusen had several roles, including offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and tight ends coach.
Prior to going to the professional ranks, VanHeusen served as the defensive coordinator at McDaniel College for two seasons, during which time he also coached the defensive backs (2008) and the linebackers (2007). VanHeusen's longest tenure was a six-year stint at Princeton University. During that time, he held several roles, including the tackles and tight ends coach (2004 to 2006), the defensive tackles coach (2002 and 2003), and safeties and outside linebackers coach (2001).
Prior to Princeton, VanHeusen coached the running backs for Siena College and the outside linebackers and defensive ends for the West Point sprint football team. VanHeusen's coaching career began at O'Neill High School in New York.
