Eric Shourds was named the Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance in the Spring of 2023 after previously being named the Athletic Compliance Coordinator. He was hired as Defensive Coordinator in the Spring of 2018 and in the Fall of 2021 added the title Assistant Head Coach, he originally started with Crown College Football as the Linebackers Coach in 2012.
Since 2012, he has served in a number of different roles including; Video Coordinator, Travel Coordinator, and Recruiting Coordinator. During his time on staff, the defense has broken 48 Individual or School records, had 19 Defensive All-Conference selections, the first ever D3football.com All-Region player for Crown, and two members of the NCAA Division 3 Team of the Week.
In 2023 the Polars defense ranked 2nd in sacks and 3rd in passing defense in the UMAC. Crown's defense led the UMAC in interceptions in the 2022 campaign with 12, two going for touchdowns. Coach Shourds coached defensive back Rudy Criner to the Polars first ever D3football.com All-Region award in the 2022 season. In 2019, Crown’s defense ranked 1st in the UMAC in Pass Defense (NCAA Top 20) & 4th Down Conversion Rate (NCAA Top 20), while being 2nd in INT’s (NCAA Top 30) and Defensive Efficiency.
“As long as I have been here, Crown’s defense has been predicated on being sound fundamentally while over-achieving in effort and energy.” noted Shourds. “Those are things I hope to never see change, so long as I am here. A lot of things we do, won’t always show up in the box score, but we are going to do everything we can to put our team in a place to succeed because of the things we do on our side of the ball.”
Coach Shourds resides in Cologne, Minnesota; with his wife Nicole, their two sons Eric (jr.) and Josh, and their bulldog Caine.
