All schools in Upshur County will close at 1 p.m. today. All B-UHS sporting events today are canceled.

Jake Casteel named Glenville State head football coach

Jake Casteel

Glenville State University has hired Jake Casteel as its new head football coach, the school announced Sunday.

Casteel, 28, becomes the 26th head coach of the Pioneers football program, which has won nine conference championships and finished as national runner-up twice.

“We are excited to welcome Coach Casteel into our Pioneer Family,” Director of Athletics Jesse Skiles said. “He is a talented young coach who has worked on some strong coaching staffs and has also proven to be an aggressive recruiter.”

Casteel joins the Pioneers after spending the 2025 season as a defensive assistant at West Virginia University, where he worked with the linebackers under his father, bandits coach Jeff Casteel. He was hired by former GSU head coach and current WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez in January.

“It’s an honor to be named the head coach at Glenville State. I am excited to build on the tradition of this program and make the university, community and alumni proud to be Pioneers,” Casteel said.

Before his stint with the Mountaineers, Casteel spent the 2024 season at Jacksonville State as a defensive analyst and SAMs coach. The Gamecocks linebackers recorded more than 240 tackles that year, helping Jacksonville State rank 11th nationally in red zone defense and 16th in turnovers gained with 24.

Casteel’s first full-time coaching position came at Cal Poly in 2022, where he served as linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator for two seasons. He previously worked as a graduate assistant at West Virginia in 2021 and Boise State in 2020.

As a player, Casteel was a standout linebacker at Northern Arizona from 2014 to 2018, recording 250 tackles in 44 games over four seasons. He led the Lumberjacks with 90 tackles in 2018 and had 54 stops in 2017 when Northern Arizona earned its first FCS Playoff berth since 2013. He was a four-time Big Sky All-Academic Team selection.

“I want to thank Director of Athletics Jesse Skiles, President Dr. Manchin and Ike Morris for believing in me,” Casteel said.

Casteel attended University High School in Morgantown and Salpointe Catholic in Arizona, where he won a state championship in 2013 and was named NFF Linebacker of the Year in Arizona.

Glenville State will formally introduce Casteel to the community, media and university this week. The event will be open to the public.

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