Get to know Marion head football coach Jason Dunning
MARION, Ill. — Jason Dunning has been waiting in the shadows for more than two decades. Starting as an assistant coach to Kerry Martin at Carterville in 1999, Dunning followed Martin to Marion a few years later.
Now, starting with the 2023 season, Dunning is the new head coach of the Marion High School football team. And while Dunning admits he’s been eagerly awaiting a chance to be a high school head coach, there is a little more than football to the Dunning family.
Jason (45) and Courtney (soon to be 42) Dunning were high school sweethearts, becoming a couple in 1996.
“We were engaged in 2001,” Courtney said. “We’ve been attending Aldersgate Methodist Church since we were engaged and were married at Aldersgate in 2003.”
Jason聽and Courtney have two children, 15-year-old Maddie who is now a sophomore at Marion High School, and 12-year-old Peyton, who is a seventh-grader at the junior high.
Prior to their marriage, Jason went to McKendree College on a football and baseball scholarship after a successful athletic career at Carterville High School. However, a shoulder injury brought him back to Carterville, where he attended John A. Logan College before graduating from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale with a degree in Secondary Education.
Upon his return to Carterville, Martin asked him to become an assistant coach for the Lions football team he once played for.
“I was still planning on wanting to continue my degree in Marine Biology,” Jason said. “Well, I ran into Coach Martin and we chatted about what I was going to do now. He asked if I had ever thought about coaching. I really didn’t have a play so I said sure. I immediately fell in love with it.”
Dunning became an assistant for Martin at Carterville, and was one of two coaches that joined Martin when he moved to Marion in 2002.
Jason began his teaching career at Harrisburg High School in 2001. Now, in his 23rd year of teaching he continues to be a Driver Education and Health Education teacher at Marion High School.
Being part of all things Marion Wildcats is now taking on a new meaning. Over the winter, Jason was named the new head football coach at Marion. Courtney says it’s an exciting time for the family.
“We are very excited for this new adventure of cheering on the new head football coach for the Marion Wildcats,” she said. “Maddy and Peyton (Jason and Courtney’s two children) have been attending Wildcat football game since they were as young as four months old and they used to sleep through the train whistle. This will be the second year they get to join Dad on the sidelines as a cheerleader and a ball boy. Last season it was a unique experience seeing all three of them on the field.”
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