Chris Ostrowsky Named NMU Head Football Coach

Courtesy of NMU Athletics

MARQUETTE, Mich. – Chris Ostrowsky has been promoted to head coach of the Northern Michigan University football team following Tuesday’s (Nov. 29) announcement that the contract of six-year head coach Bernie Anderson would not be renewed. Ostrowsky has been the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator for the past two seasons.

“I want to thank Bernie for bringing me to Northern Michigan University and to the university and athletic department administrations for giving me this opportunity,” said Ostrowsky. “We want to create a nationally recognized prestigious brand that will be Northern Michigan University football. Winning championships and graduating scholars will be our everyday goal. Wildcat football will again become a premier program.”

This past year the Wildcats went 4-7 overall and 3-7 in the Great Lakes
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for sixth place in the North Division.

“Chris has coaching experience at Division I, II, and III levels,” said
Steve Reed, interim athletic director. “He is passionate about NMU and he believes relationship building is the key to success. He has gained the full respect of our football student-athletes with an offensive system based on trust and accountability. I know he and his staff will work extremely hard to engage the campus, alumni and the local community in Wildcat football.”

Ostrowsky came to NMU with 15 years of coaching experience, which included three seasons (2007-10) as an assistant at NCAA Division I Northeastern University in Boston. While there, he was the quarterbacks coach, recruiting coordinator and passing game coordinator.

From 2005-07, Ostrowsky was the assistant head football coach at NCAA Division III Widener University in Chester, Pa. He was the offensive coordinator in 2005 when his unit established 27 new school records. The 2005 and 2006 Widener squads won back-to-back South Atlantic ECAC Bowl titles. Ostrowsky also was the offensive coordinator at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. from 2002-04.

From 1997-01, Ostrowsky coached at East Side High School in Newark, N.J., where he earned the Newark Star Ledger High School Coach of the Year honor in 1998 after turning around a program that had lost 18 consecutive games.

Ostrowsky was quarterback at Roselle Park High School, a position he also played at Jersey City State College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1993. He has run the Chris Ostrowsky Quarterback/Receiver Camp each summer since 2006. He was invited to be a keynote speaker at the both the 2005 and 2011 Nike Coaches Clinic in Atlantic City, N.J., where he discussed the spread offense and red zone offense.

Ostrowsky and his wife Jennifer have three children: Jackson, 11, Joseph, 9 and Hope, 2.