University of South Dakota Athletics

Phil Ockinga has experience coaching nearly every position group during a career that dates back to the early 2000s. He is the head of the Coyotes’ young and talented receiving corps following two years serving as special teams coordinator and running backs coach. Ockinga is also the program’s recruiting coordinator and was named assistant head coach ahead of the 2019 campaign.
 
Ockinga began his collegiate career as a football player at Wyoming before transferring to Hastings College in Nebraska where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education. Ockinga spent two years as a graduate assistant for his alma mater before moving three hours south to Hays, Kansas, where he joined the staff at Fort Hays State.
 
Ockinga spent five years at Fort Hays State before taking a job at Florida International. He worked four years there starting as a graduate assistant coach and worked into the role of linebackers coach and director of player personnel.
 
Hutchinson Community College named Ockinga its defensive line coach ahead of the 2013 season and promoted him to offensive coordinator and in charge of running backs and tight ends to set up a magical 2014 campaign. With Ockinga controlling the offense, the Blue Dragons averaged 43 points, finished with an 11-1 record and a final NJCAA national ranking of No. 4 – highest in program history. HCC ranked sixth nationally in total offense (502.2 ypg) and ran for 274 yards per game while winning a conference title.
 
Ockinga joined Bob Nielson in Macomb, Illinois, in March of 2015. In one year as receivers coach at Western Illinois, Ockinga helped the Leathernecks reach the FCS playoffs for the first time since 2010. Ockinga coached two of the top-five receivers in the Missouri Valley including all-MVFC performer Lance Lenoir Jr., who led the conference with 83 catches and had 1,184 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.
 
Ockinga moved with Nielson to South Dakota ahead of the 2016 season and helped guide one of the top special teams performers in the nation in punter/place kicker Miles Bergner, a unanimous All-American, who graduated as the program's all-time leading scorer and top punter. Bergner led the nation in punting in 2016 with a 47.5-yard average and became the first Valley player to earn first-team honors as both a place kicker and punter in the same season. The Coyotes ranked second nationally in net punting with a 41.3-yard average.
 
One year later, Ockinga helped the Coyotes reach the FCS playoffs for the first time. South Dakota won a Division I era record eight games in 2017 and advanced to the round of 16. Ockinga took over as recruiting coordinator the following year and continues in that capacity.

The Coyotes have led the Valley in passing in each of Ockinga’s two full seasons as wide receivers coach. The position group averaged 200 catches for more than 2,300 yards and 13 touchdowns during the 2018 and 2019 campaigns. The 2020-21 season was shorted to four games in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but not before Caleb Vander Esch earned all-MVFC honors for the second straight season. USD has boasted an all-Valley wide out in each of the last three years.
 
In addition to his bachelor’s degree, Ockinga earned a master’s degree in health and human performance at Fort Hays State. He and his wife, Kelsie, have three children, Miles, Claire and Elle.