WALLACE STATE SPORTS: Lions to add women’s golf in Aug. 2015

Published 4:03 pm Tuesday, January 6, 2015

HANCEVILLE — Wallace State Community College will add a women’s golf team beginning with the 2015-16 academic year, announced Wallace State President Dr. Vicki Karolewics this week.

“Golf is a lifelong sport and I’m excited we can include those kind of sports in our repertoire of athletics at Wallace State,” Karolewics said. “Speaking from a female’s perspective, women’s involvement in athletics is very important to me. You can look at the history of our women’s teams at Wallace State and see that we have a two-time national championship softball team, a volleyball team that makes the national tournament each year and a women’s basketball team that has won a number of state championships. Our women’s teams are not only outstanding athletically, but academically.”

Like the Wallace State men’s program, the women’s team will compete during both the fall and spring seasons and be coached by Dan York.

Wallace State’s men’s golf team has enjoyed perennial success under York, who has led the program since 1987. He has guided the men to 19 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) tournament appearances and finished national runner-up on three occasions, including last spring. The Lions previously finished national runner-up in 1993 and 1996.

Wallace State’s men, the defending conference champions, have also won 11 conference titles under York, who was inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2010.

York is eager to pilot the women’s golf program.

“There are a lot of young ladies in the area who haven’t had an opportunity to play golf in college because some of them simply got overlooked,” said York, a Cullman native. “If they don’t get signed to a four-year college, they are out of luck. We’re now going to give them the opportunity to not only continue their education but to play in some tournaments and hopefully be seen by these four-year colleges in order to earn an additional scholarship.”

York has coached eventual PGA Tour professionals Brett Wetterich and Fredrick Jacobsen at Wallace State, along with country music star Kip Moore.

“There may be a fairytale story out there for a young woman we may recruit,” York said. “We were the only school to offer a scholarship to Brett Wetterich and the rest is history. He won on the PGA Tour and was a Ryder Cup member.”

Women’s golf will become the eighth Wallace State sport to offer scholarships to potential student-athletes, joining baseball, softball, men and women’s basketball, volleyball, men’s golf and cheerleading.

Wallace State’s men’s golf, which recently finished the fall season ranked second in the nation, competes against Central Alabama Community College and Faulkner State within the Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC). The team’s district tournament includes squads from Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.

“Women’s golf is becoming more and more popular at the collegiate level,” Wallace State athletic director Paul Bailey said. “There are high school teams in North Alabama who have won state championships within the last few years. I feel it’s the perfect time to start a program like this.”

Added York: “We’ve had men’s golf at Wallace State for a number of years and up until the last two or three years there weren’t enough young women playing to justify starting a program. We feel that has now changed and we are going to be leaders in women’s golf. That’s not unusual for Wallace State. It’s our chance to support the dreams many women have of playing golf.”

Wallace State athletics has won seven NJCAA national championships, winning two in softball, two apiece in men’s and women’s tennis, and one in men’s track and field. Tennis and track and field — as well as men’s soccer — have since been discontinued.

The men’s golf program has produced the last two NJCAA Division I individual national champions. Aksel Olsen became the program’s first individual champ in 2013 and Cooper Brown repeated the accomplishment last May.