Merritt leads USA Football’s 2010 Junior National Team after previously serving as the defensive backs coach for USA Football’s 2009 team that earned a gold medal at the 2009 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Junior World Championship. He brings nine years of high school coaching experience as head coach of Miami Christopher Columbus High School. During his time there, his Columbus H.S. Explorers have won six district titles, including undefeated regular seasons in ’05, ’07 and ’08. Under Merritt’s leadership, more than 30 of his student-athletes have gone on to play Division I or I-AA college football. Merritt’s record at Miami Columbus is 74-20 (.787) over the nine years. Merritt spent time coaching in the college ranks as an assistant at Eastern Illinois University from 1993-94 and Thiel College from 2000-01. In between these positions, he was the head coach of the Hamburg Blue Devils who won the German Football League championship in the 1996 German Bowl with two runners-up finishes in 1998 and 1999.