After a successful two-year run as the head coach of the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods men’s basketball program, Jesse McClung joined the Valparaiso University men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach in March 2025.
McClung posted a 53-15 overall record and a 30-4 mark in River States Conference (RSC) play in his two-year stint leading the Pomeroys program. Under his leadership, SMWC made back-to-back NAIA men’s basketball national championship appearances, the only two in school history, highlighted by a Round of 16 appearance in Kansas City.
The 2024 RSC Coach of the Year, McClung instructed the RSC Player of the Year that season, guiding a team that had finished in last place to the best season in school history. In 2025, he led SMWC to victories over two nationally-ranked opponents in the first and second rounds of the NAIA Championships. The Pomeroys secured the outright 2025 RSC regular season crown and went on to claim the conference tournament title. McClung departed as the program’s all-time leader in career wins, single-season wins, RSC victories and winning percentage in all three categories.
Before taking the helm at SMWC, McClung served as the associate head coach at Marian University from 2017-2023, leading the team to six straight NAIA national tournament appearances including a 2019 Elite Eight and 2020 Final Four appearance. The team owned a 124-38 record, winning 77 percent of its games with McClung on staff. He recruited and developed seven NAIA All-Americans and the Crossroads League Defensive Player of the Year.
McClung was on staff at Division-III Wabash College as an assistant coach from 2011-2014. He previously served as an assistant at Marian from 2008-2011.
McClung graduated from Ball State University with a degree in communication studies before going on to earn a master’s in applied sociology from the University of Indianapolis. He began his collegiate playing career at Barton County Community College from 2001-2003 before playing at Ball State from 2003-2005 and finishing his playing career at UIndy during the 2005-06 season.
