North Park University Athletics

North Park Head Coach Kyle Rooker, the 2023 D3football.com Region 5 Coach of the Year, just completed his seventh year at the helm of the Viking Football program. Under Rooker’s leadership, the Vikings have shown marked improvement on and off the field, highlighted by the 2023 and 2024 teams finishing with 5-5 records, the best seasons at North Park since 1968.

Rooker’s #TheRightWay philosophy emphasizes recruiting, retaining, and developing young men who succeed in the classroom, have success on the field, and make a positive impact on the campus community. This philosophy has led to one of the most successful periods in Viking football history.

Academically speaking, the Vikings cumulative team GPA has improved by .8 during Rooker’s tenure, reaching 3.24 in the spring of 2025. The 2023 season saw five Vikings named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team and the 2024 season saw eight players making the team, the most in school history. Additionally, Jereme Ombogo became the program’s first CSC Academic All-American since 1987. These academic improvements have led to two of the largest graduating classes in school history, with thirty-one seniors in 2024 and twenty-one seniors in 2025.

The visibility of the North Park Football program has increased significantly since Rooker’s arrival, as the Vikings have been featured on D3Football.com during the 2021, 2023 and 2024 seasons. Fifteen different Vikings have earned All College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) recognition for a total of twenty-six selections, highlighted by Juan Nieves becoming the first ever Viking to earn All-CCIW recognition five times. Viking players have been recognized as the CCIW Player of the Week fifteen times and have made the D3Football.com Team of the Week on thirteen occasions. The eight All-CCIW selections and three All-Region selections in 2024 are both program records.

Under Rooker’s guidance, Quarterback Matt Eck graduated as the North Park’s all-time leader in passing yards, completion percentage, TD passes and TD’s responsible for and led the 2024 Vikings to the highest scoring offense in program history. 

Other significant accomplishments include beating Illinois Wesleyan for the first time ever in back-to-back seasons (2023, 2024), winning at Augustana for only the second time in program history, and beating Carthage at Carthage for the first time since 1992 (2021, 2023). Finally, the 2023 and 2024 seasons saw the Vikings end the season with the highest CCIW finish since 1972.

Before North Park, Rooker had a six-year stint (2012-2018) as the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator of College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) rival Carthage College. Rooker helped Carthage steadily improve from 1-9 in 2013 to consecutive seasons of 7-3 (2016 & 2017).

Working primarily with the offensive line, quarterbacks, and tight ends, Rooker directed an O-line that allowed the fewest sacks in the CCIW for the 2015 season (11), coached his quarterbacks to a combined 4:1 touchdown to interception ratio in 2016-2017, and helped lead his offense to the fewest turnovers in league action for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The 2017 Carthage College team was the NCAA Division III leader in turnover margin.

In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Rooker was also the Firebird's academic coordinator. From 2013-2018, he helped improve the team's cumulative grade point average by .57 points while mentoring 2 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections.

Prior to his time at Carthage College, Rooker was the offensive, defensive, special teams, and recruiting coordinator of his alma mater, The College of Wooster (OH) from July 2001 until December 2012. The 2004 Fighting Scots posted the best finish in school history at 11-1, captured a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship, and finalized their season with a national ranking of 10^th in NCAA Division III football.

Rooker, a native of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, graduated from The College of Wooster in 2001, earning his BA in History. While a part of the Fighting Scots' football team, Rooker was a 3-year varsity letterman, a 2-year varsity starter at linebacker, and a member of the 1997 NCAC championship team. He also holds a Master's degree in Leadership from Carthage College.

Coach Rooker's family includes his wife Jennifer, and his daughters Piper and Kendall.

Coaching Career, Season-by-Season (2019-)