Coaches

Jon Atkinson

Jon Atkinson is set for his 21st year at Longwood University during 2023-2024 academic year and his 19th year as head coach of the men’s soccer program following his appointment in February 2005. He owns an overall record of 94-175-42 in his 18 seasons as Longwood’s head coach, including 59-66-19 at home.


Since being named head coach, Atkinson has led the Lancers to a pair of conference titles in the Atlantic Soccer Conference as well as five trips to the conference championship game between the ASC and the Big South. The Lancers have made it to the conference tournament 11 times under his direction, winning games in six of those seasons.


The 2013 Big South Coach of the Year, Atkinson has had 41 players earn all-conference accolades and eight players earn All-Tournament honors in his tenure at Longwood. In addition, he has coached one conference player of the year and two freshmen of the year, and nine players have earned VaSID All-State honors. In 2022, he coached the Big South Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year.


Since joining the Big South in 2012, 16 players have earned Big South All-Conference accolades along with another six earning All-Freshman team honors under Atkinson’s tutelage.


In 2021, the Lancers made a run to the Big South Tournament after a third-place finish in the regular season that gave them the right to host a tournament game for the second time in program history. The third-place finish tied for the program’s best finish in the regular season table since joining the league. A trio of players earned All-Big South honors, matching a program record high.


His 2016 squad rode a host streak to the Big South championship game. The 2016 squad qualified for the tournament following a golden goal victory over rival Liberty in the 2016 regular season finale before eventually falling to top-seeded Radford. In that run, the Lancers knocked off UNC Asheville and High Point on the road to take the league by storm.


Longwood men's soccer finished the 2016 season with an 8-12-1 record behind the dynamic duo of Finnlay Wyatt, who scored six goals and added six assists, and Dan Campos, who led the NCAA with 12 assists from his midfield position. After success with the Lancers, Wyatt signed a professional contract with the Richmond Kickers.


Atkinson’s Lancers enjoyed a breakout 2015 campaign, doubling their wins and improving to an overall record of 9-9-1 and 4-4-1 in Big South play. The team ranked amongst the Big South’s top-three for goals scored after the squad’s group of freshman accounted for nearly half of Longwood’s total. The storm of scoring was led by All-Big South second team selection and redshirt-freshman Willy Miezan, who finished the season nationally-ranked as one of the top scorers in Division I.


Longwood finished 7-9-4 overall in 2013, including an impressive 6-3-1 record in the Big South Conference, while advancing to the league tournament semifinals as Atkinson was named the conference coach of the year.


Prior to joining the Big South, Atkinson led Longwood to an overall record of 11-6-3 throughout the 2011 season, including 6-2-1 at home and a 2-2 mark in the Atlantic Soccer Conference (ASC) while winning the ASC Tournament Championship for the second time in four years. It was the most wins for the program since 2002. He led the Lancers to a record of 2-13-4 during 2010, including 0-3-1 in the ASC, following a record of 6-12-2 during 2009, including 2-2 in the ASC while finishing as ASC Tournament runners-up. Atkinson led Longwood to its first ASC Tournament Championship in 2008, finishing 8-8-4 overall, 2-2 in the ASC while going 4-2-2 at the Athletics Complex where the program is 26-14-5 since 2006 when competition first began at the facility.


He led the program to an overall record of 7-10-2 during his first season in 2005, including 3-2-1 in the ASC while playing a schedule that included five Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) members. It was a dramatic turnaround from the year before when the squad finished 1-16 (2004), and even more impressive was Longwood finishing second during its first year competing in the ASC, though unable to participate in the ASC Tournament due to the Division I Reclassification.


Longwood was 7-8-2 overall in 2007, including 3-2 in the ASC while advancing to the ASC Tournament Championship match for the first time before falling on penalty kicks to finish as runners-up for the first time. The Lancers were 6-8-4 overall in 2006, 2-2-2 in the ASC.


Before he become the head boss of the Lancers, Atkinson previously served as an assistant coach on the men’s soccer coaching staff beginning in 2003 after spending time in the professional ranks playing with premiership outfit Sunderland and Darlington FC, managing 18 appearances for the Quakers before coming to the United States. Due to a career-ending injury, Atkinson turned his hand to coaching while gaining his FA Badge during his time with the Black Cats. He currently holds a US Soccer Coaching A License.


Atkinson was an assistant coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1999-2002; helping guide WVWC to a pair of West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) titles and a runners-up finish in three years. He was also the WVIAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year as a senior student-athlete with the Bobcats, scoring a school-record 29 goals during 2001. Atkinson was the head coach of both the boys and girls soccer programs at Lewis County (W.Va.) High School during 2001-02, leading the two teams to appearances in the state finals, for the first time in school history.


Atkinson is dedicated to soccer and spends much of his free time improving the college game while giving back to the local community with numerous off-season and summer camps and clinics. He has served as a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) regional ranking committee member, the ASC’s Major League Soccer (MLS) Combine Selection representative, and an Olympic Development Program (ODP) Region I coach since 2008.


A native of Newcastle, England, Atkinson earned his Bachelor of Science degree in sports management from Wearside College in Sunderland, England, his Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Sunderland University, and his Master of Business Administration degree from West Virginia Wesleyan. He is married to Nikki (Hall) Atkinson ’98, a former Longwood women’s basketball All-American and Academic All-America student-athlete. The couple has three sons, Jack, Charlie, Max and a daughter, Ella.