Thomas repeats as coach of the year

Another great year is in the books for the Liberty University golf team, and for the second year in a row, coach Jeff Thomas took home the Virginia Collegiate Golf Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award. He was also one of six finalists for the Dave Williams Award, the NCAA’s top honor for a men’s golf coach.

Thomas has been with the Flames for seven years and is a former player and graduate of Liberty. Last season, he led the Flames in three back-to-back titles, including the Big South Men’s Golf Championship title.
“It was nice to be nominated as a finalist for National Coach of the Year,” Thomas said. “It was also nice to be nominated as National Southeastern Coach of the Year.”

Thomas

Thomas attributes his players as the reason for his success as a coach.

“I think our biggest thing is getting good players to come to Liberty that like what Liberty is about and getting players to get sold into what Liberty is trying to accomplish and for what the golf team is trying to do,” Thomas said.

“The most exciting part of coaching is getting to work with the players every day, being able to spend time with them and watch them to develop as players and men,” Thomas said.

“For the program, this award speaks well of our guys, that they’re going in the right direction and playing well,” Thomas said.
“Obviously, you don’t get nominated for the award if the guys aren’t playing well, so it’s great that people are recognizing that.”
“This year, we will just be better than what we were last year, as far as each individual player,” Thomas said. “We want to go out and play hard and see what happens. We have got a really good team and returned four of our five starters that went to nationals last year and won regionals. We’ve got a lot of really good players and hopefully they can stay focused. We would like to make it back to the NCAA Finals again this year and win another Big South Championship. We’ll just see what happens from there.”

Thomas also said that Liberty has a lot of really good coaches who talk a lot, so he picks people’s brains just to see what they know. He would like to see how we can improve, so he passes ideas and takes advice from the coaches.

The players that Thomas works with on a daily basis are really proud of their coach. To them, he is more of a friend than an instructor. Senior Max McKay in particular is thankful to have a coach like Thomas.

“You can’t beat having one of the best coaches in the NCAA,” McKay said. “He guides our practice and our development. A lot of the improvement that has been seen in our program over the past three years can be attributed to the coach.”
“Coach has times where he’s relaxed, but there are also certain times where he will get up and kick you in the butt if he needs to,” McKay said. “He’s not afraid to get up in someone’s face and tell them that you need to get at it. That’s definitely one of his qualities that are beneficial to the team.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *