Donald Eck (born November 30, 1961) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

coach. Until November 2021, he was the offensive coordinator at Clearfield High School in

Clearfield, Utah Clearfield is a city in Davis County, Utah, United States. The population was 31,364 at the 2020 census. The city grew rapidly during the 1940s, with the formation of Hill Air Force Base, and in the 1950s with the nationwide increase in suburb a ...

, a position he held since the summer of 2020. Eck previously spent 28 years as an assistant coach at the collegiate and professional levels, including stints as offensive coordinator of the

Berlin Thunder The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe. History The Thunder came into existence as an expansion team, after the London/England Monarchs franchise shut down operations, prior to the 1999 season. Home games f ...

and Rhein Fire in

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

. Eck was the original head coach at Corner Canyon High School in Draper, Utah. In 2021, he was fired from his coaching position at Clearfield High School over a harassing voicemail he left one of his players.

Playing career

Eck played as

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

for

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

from 1980 to 1982. He was voted Utah's Most Valuable Lineman all three years. He made the all-

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to most of ...

(WAC) second team in both 1981 and 1982. Eck was team captain as a senior in 1982.

Coaching career

Eck began his coaching career as student assistant at

in 1983. After a one-year stint as assistant coach at Woods Cross High School (Utah) he returned to his alma mater in 1985, where he served two seasons as a graduate assistant before becoming the offensive line coach (1987–1989). In 1990, Eck coached the centers and guards for

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

’s Aloha Bowl team. From there, he went to James Madison as offensive line coach. The Dukes’ 1991 team finished 12th in the nation in total offense. He was promoted to assistant head coach/offensive line coach prior to the 1992 season. Eck’s third coaching stint in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

began in 1994, when he was added to

Ron McBride Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe A ...

’s Utah staff as offensive line coach. Also won the headman in 1987. After leaving Utah, Eck spent five seasons in

. He was the offensive line coach for the Scottish Claymores (2003) and served as offensive coordinator/offensive line coach for the

(2004–2006) and Rhein Fire (2007). Eck returned to college football in 2008 as the offensive line coach at

Weber State Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

. In January 2009, he was promoted to assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, but left WSU at the beginning of spring workouts to join the Las Vegas franchise of the United Football League. In the summer of 2020, Eck took the job as the offensive coordinator at Clearfield High School in Clearfield Utah, coaching under former NFL player and Clearfield Alumni Andre Dyson. Eck was fired from this position on Nov 23, 2021, for leaving a harassing voicemail on a student’s phone, which included, in part, "Hey, give me a call when you can. I want to meet with your parents, man, ’cause I keep hearing your mom’s putting all sorts of (expletive) on social media talking (expletive) about the coaches here and I’m gonna put a stop to that, bro."

References

External links

Scottish Claymores bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eck, Don 1961 births Living people American football centers Arizona Wildcats football coaches Berlin Thunder coaches James Madison Dukes football coaches Las Vegas Locomotives coaches Rhein Fire coaches Scottish Claymores coaches Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Utah Utes football coaches Weber State Wildcats football coaches High school football coaches in Utah People from Norwalk, California Players of American football from California