Western Illinois football coach Myers Hendrickson announced the addition of Shane Dowty to the Leatherneck football staff on March 30, 2023. Dowty takes over as coach of the defensive backfield.
Dowty was most recently at Arkansas State, serving in an offensive quality control position. Before working at Arkansas State, Dowty was a member of the Missouri S & T coaching staff from 2020-21, working ass pass game coordinator and quarterback coach, Dowty also served as co-defensive coordinator and linebacker coach in 2019 at Missouri S&T.
The Miners offense flourished under Dowty in his most recent role, ranking 23rd in the nation in scoring, 24th in total offense and 22nd in passing offense. During his time in Rolla, Missouri S&T finished 7-4 in 2019 and a combined 8-6 during the spring (2-1) and fall (6-5) of 2021.
Dowty spent the 2018 season as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at MidAmerica Nazarene University, which followed his initial stop in Rolla as a member of the Missouri S&T coaching staff. He served as the Miners’ defensive backs coach during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, helping the squad rank 20th in the nation in total defense in 2017.
The 2014-15 seasons saw Dowty serve as a defensive graduate assistant coach working with the secondary at Iowa State, where he earned his master’s degree. The two seasons prior to his time in Ames, Dowty worked as the defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at College (Palm Desert, Calif.), where he coached six defensive backs who went on to receive Division I offers.
Dowty spent the 2011 season as the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at St. Ambrose University. His lone season with the program saw the Fighting Bees finish with a 7-3 record and ranked in the NAIA Top 25 poll.
He was also an offensive coaching assistant at the University of Iowa during the 2009 and 2010 seasons working with the team’s quarterbacks, including Ricky Stanzi, a fifth-round draft choice of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2011.
The Muscatine, Iowa, native began his coaching career at the high school level in 2008 as an assistant coach at Iowa City West High School as he worked with the team’s linebackers. He received his bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Iowa and earned his master’s in higher education from Iowa State University. Dowty and his wife, Emily, have one son, Mason, and a daughter, Blakely.
