Ameer Ismail joins Davenport as the Defensive Line coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Ismail the last two seasons has been a Defensive Coordinator, Linebacker, Secondary, Strength & Conditioning coach, and Recruiting Coordinator at the Division II and III levels.
Ismail’s coaching experience includes NCAA Division I, II, III as well as a Head Professional Arena Football and assistant in the Canadian Football League. Born in Lansing, Michigan, Ismail was an All-State running back at West Ottawa High School. He went on to excel at Western Michigan University, culminating All-American, MAC Defensive Player of the Year, National Sack and TFL Champion, and National Defensive Player of the year honors.
Prior to Davenport, Ismail served as Defensive Coordinator/Head Strength and Conditioning Coach/Linebacker/Secondary Coach at Lake Erie College. While at Lake Erie, Ismail's defense was ranked No. 1 in the GMAC in Red Zone Stops and top 10 in the country, No. 1 in forced fumbles and recoveries, as well as second in the conference in fourth down stops. Ismail coached three GMAC All-Conference Athletes: Jayme Colon at OLB/Safety, Cameron Grodhaus at Safety, and Michael Cox at DE.
Prior to that he was the Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach at Kalamazoo College. Before Kalamazoo, he was the Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Line coach at Wilkes University. In the fall of 2020, Ismail was a Defensive Analyst and Assistant Linebackers Coach at Western Michigan University.
Ismail was a Head Coach in Professional Arena Football for three years, most recently with the Iowa Barnstormers 2020-2021. In 2018, Coach Ismail led his team to a league-best 11-5 record, which is also a league record for most regular-season wins, earning him Head Coach of the Year honors. After the season, he had an assistant coaching opportunity with the Montreal Alouettes in the CFL under GM Kavis Reed and Head Coach Mike Sherman.
Prior to coaching college, Ismail has been a Defensive Coordinator and Strength and Conditioning Coach for six years (three seasons in Professional Arena Football, three seasons at a Class A High School in Michigan), where his defenses ranked top-2 each year in all major categories. Ismail spent 2019 as the Outside Linebackers Coach at Albion College. He also coached for two seasons at Western Michigan University, most recently in 2020 as a Defensive Analyst and Assistant Linebackers Coach. The previous season at WMU was in 2015-16 under Coach P.J. Fleck where he was quality control and assistant linebackers coach.
At Western Michigan, he helped mentor and coach First Team All-Mac Linebacker selection Zaire Barnes, third team All-Mac Linebacker Corvin Moment, and Current Chicago Bear PFF All-Mac Selection AJ Thomas, who converted from safety and had nine pass breakups, which is three more than anyone else in the MAC. Thomas was also third in the MAC with nine tackles for loss in six games. In addition, Ismail coached All-MAC selection and 2019 All-American Linebacker Treshaun Hayward.
In his first stop at Western Michigan University in 2015-2016 as Defensive QC and Assistant Linebacker Coach, Ismail coached Robert Spillane (current Pittsburgh Steelers Linebacker), Asantay Brown (former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker), Caleb Bailey (current Iowa Barnstormer and former CFL LB), and Jarrell McKinney (former Houston Texans Defensive End).
Ismail was an NCAA D1 All-American student-athlete at Western Michigan University and NCAA leader in sacks with 17 and tackles for loss with 26. He holds the NCAA record with six sacks in one game against Ball State. He earned National Defensive Player of the Week honors for his efforts in that game with 13 tackles, six sacks, seven tackles for loss, and one interception returned for a touchdown. For his efforts, he premiered on ESPN and in USA Today. In addition, he earned MAC Defensive Player of the Year honors and still holds the MAC single-season record for sacks.
Ismail’s senior season, the Western Michigan defense, led by coach Scott Shafer, was ranked a top-five defense in the country, first in the NCAA in sacks (46) and interceptions (24), finished third in the nation forcing 34 turnovers and ranked sixth in rush defense yielding only 2.6 yards per carry and 76 yards per game. WMU finished the season 8-4 and went to the International Bowl, its first bowl game in 18 years.
As a professional, he was a member of the Kansas City Chiefs camp after college as a linebacker. He had an opportunity in the CFL with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats before playing professional Arena Football for three seasons, where he earned First Team IFL honors for two of those seasons. He was a Defensive Player of the Year while still holding the IFL record for tackles in a season with 167 in 12 games and the career record for tackles per game with 11. He also played one season in the AFL in China, where he led the league in tackles and was an All-Pro Linebacker.
Ismail was an All-State running back at West Ottawa High School, rushing for a school-record 1,544 yards and 25 touchdowns and graduating as the school’s all-time leading rusher in yards and touchdowns. In addition, he achieved All-Conference status as a power forward in basketball and track and field, where he was a conference champion in the 110 Hurdles and the shot put and qualified for the MHSAA State Finals. The former OK-Red Conference athlete of the year was inducted into the West Ottawa High School Hall of Fame in 2011.
Ismail earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science and physiology at Western Michigan University before returning to complete a master’s degree in sports management and administration. In addition to his football playing and coaching career, Ismail played professional Slamball on Spike, VS, CBS, and Cartoon Network as well as performing stunts in several movies and television shows such as Dark Knight Rises, Red Dawn, One Tree Hill, Necessary Roughness, and Ford commercials.
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