POTSDAM — In an announcement that is bittersweet for Clarkson Athletics, Casey Jones, who just completed his 13th season with the Golden Knights, has announced he will move within the ECAC, back to his Alma Mater to become Associate Head Coach/Head Coach Elect at Cornell University.

Jones will work with the longest-tenured head coach in Cornell men's hockey history, Mike Schafer '86 in what will be his 30th and final season with the Big Red.

Jones has kept the Golden Knights in the upper echelon of college hockey for the better part of his time as the 11th Head Coach with Clarkson Hockey.

Selected the Tim Taylor ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year in 2019 and was a finalist for the award several times during his career at Clarkson.  He has also been a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award, presented annually to the CCM/AHCA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year.

Through his thirteen seasons behind the Clarkson bench, Jones guided the Green and Gold to a 234-185-56 overall record. The Knights have placed in the top two of the ECAC Hockey standings in three of the past five years and advanced to the league's championship tournament in Lake Placid four times over his tenure. Clarkson won the program's sixth ECAC Hockey Championship Tournament title in 2019. The Knights have participated in two NCAA Tournaments and were poised for the tournament in 2020 before COVID shut down the sports world.

Numerous Knights have earned postseason honors during Jones' tenure. This year, Trey Taylor was named the ECAC Best Defenseman Award, which is the 11th skater to win an ECAC Award under Jones. In 2020, Frank Marotte '20 was named an All-American along with earning ECAC Hockey's Goaltender of the Year award. Marotte joins Sheldon Rempal '18, Kelly Summers '18 and Nico Sturm '19 who have earned All-American honors over Jones' tenure.  For five consecutive seasons a Golden Knight was named ECAC Hockey's Best Defensive Forward as Zach Tsekos won his second in a row in 2022.  Before Zach, Josh Dunne earned the honor in 2020, following two-time winner Sturm (2018, 2019).

The Knights have also excelled in the classroom with Jones as head coach. Clarkson was one of only two men's hockey teams in the country ranked in the top 10 in both the NCAA Academic Progress Rates and the final NCAA Pairwise in multiple seasons.  Zach Tsekos became the third Clarkson player in the last eight years and second in the past two seasons to be honored with the prestigious ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year Award, joining Matt Zarbo (2013) and Devin Brosseau (2019).  This 2023-24 season, the team had a 3.57 cumulative GPA, which was the highest among Men's sports at Clarkson and placed 24 athletes on the ECAC All Academic Team.

"I would personally like to thank Casey for all that he has done for the men's hockey program and Clarkson University.   He has led this program with the utmost integrity and has always had the best interest of the program at heart. We wish him and his family the very best in this next chapter" said Clarkson's Athletic Director Laurel Kane.

The national search for the 12th Leonard S. Ceglarski Head Men's Hockey Head Coach at Clarkson will begin immediately.