FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Northern Arizona Head Football Coach Jerome Souers has been awarded a one-year extension that will put him under contract to coach the Northern Arizona University football team through the 2010 season, extending the contract set to expire after the 2009 season. The contract was approved by the Arizona Board of Regents Thursday.

“I want to thank Dr. Haeger for his continued support,” said Souers. “We strive everyday as a staff to produce a football program that our campus, fans and alumni can be proud of.”

Entering his 12th year as head coach of the Northern Arizona football program, Souers is the dean of the Big Sky Conference coaches. NAU has posted three consecutive winning seasons, finishing third, fourth and fifth in the premier conference in the Football Championship Subdivision.

“I am happy the Board of Regents supported our decision given these challenging times, recognizing the need to continue the stability in our program,” said Athletics Director Jim Fallis. “It is a reward to Coach Souers for the job he has done with the program academically and the other challenges we have faced.”

The football program has shown a demonstrated record of improvement in its Academic Progress Rate (APR), recording a single-year APR of 951 and multi-year rate of 919 from the most recent statistics in 2007-08.

Under Souers NAU made a record-breaking NCAA I-AA Quarterfinal appearance in 2003 while winning the first Big Sky Conference title since 1978, recorded two playoff berths and posted seven winning seasons. During his 11-year tenure, Souers has coached 90 student-athletes to all-conference honors a combined 142 times with 34 first-team selections and 36 All-American accolades.

Souers also has the Lumberjacks posting impressive results in the classroom. The football program has produced the Golden Eagle Scholar Athlete of the Year six times in the last nine years (Blair Boynton, Eric Damko, Steve Gomez, Mark Gould, Paul Ernster and Jeff Wheeler) and had seven student-athletes named to the 2008 Big Sky Fall All-Academic team. Overall, 50 student-athletes have earned 88 Big Sky academic honors over the last 11 seasons. There have also been five Academic All-Americansl.

The contract extension does not call for a raise in salary or an increase in any other terms.