The 2025-26 season will be the second full season for Jay Rowell as the Head Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach at Illinois College. It will also be his sixth as an assistant coach with the men’s basketball program.

During his first full season, Rowell helped the Blueboys to a fourth-place finish at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, after being picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll. Three Blueboys earned all-conference honors after the season.  On the women’s side, the Lady Blues also finished fourth at the SLIAC championships, while posting the lowest 54-hole team total in program history, and a pair of IC players were honored by the league.

Rowell, who has been a member of the IC athletics department over the past six seasons, stepped in to lead the golf programs on an interim basis in the spring of 2024 before being promoted to the position full-time. During his interim period, the Blueboys set four school records while the Lady Blues won two of the five tournaments they participated in.

Highlighting his time on the Blueboys' men's basketball staff have been back-to-back Midwest Conference championships, a pair of berths in the NCAA Tournament, along with the program's first NCAA Tournament victory in 2024. IC is 66-17 over the past three seasons.

Rowell spent the 2018-19 season with Knox as an assistant coach.
 
Rowell is a United States Air Force veteran with seven years of service who was awarded the Air Force Meritorious Service Award.