Missouri Western Director of Athletics Kurt McGuffin has announced the hiring of Greg Dillon as the new Head Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach. Dillon comes to MWSU after four years at Colorado State University-Pueblo and takes over for Cathy Habermehl and Jim Perry who retired this past summer.

“I believe Greg will be a great fit not only to lead our golf programs but also for the community of St. Joseph,” commented McGuffin. “He is very knowledgeable not only as an instructor of the game of golf but has been a highly successful NCAA Division II Coach.”

While at CSU-Pueblo, Dillon established one of the top women’s golf programs in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.  He also established himself as one of the top women’s golf coaches in RMAC history.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this opportunity to come to Missouri Western,” Dillon said.  “We have a rich golf tradition and I am eager to arrive to build on that and to hit the ground running.”

Dillon, a three-time RMAC Coach of the Year recipient, took the women’s golf program from “worst to first,” taking over a last place program in 2009 and systematically improving the program to conference champions and beyond.

His step-by-step process began in 2010 as the ThunderWolves had their first All-RMAC golfer in Rachel Means.

In 2011, CSU-Pueblo rose to 4th in the conference as RMAC Freshman of the Year Michaela Breit became the program’s first ever golfer to qualify individually for the NCAA Division II Super Regional. In recognition of his team’s performance in 2010-11, Dillon was named the RMAC Women’s Golf Coach of the Year.

In year three, the “worst to first” journey was complete as the ThunderWolves caught fire at the end of the season, winning the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship and qualifying as a team for the NCAA Division II Super Regional.  He again was named the RMAC Coach of the Year.

By 2013, his team won nearly every tournament, barely missing out on a second straight RMAC championship by finishing second to close the season and qualifying RMAC Golfer of the Year, Leina Kim, for the NCAA Division II National Championship as an individual, finishing in the top 40.

“I am very proud of the program we built at CSUP and it was very tough to leave but the opportunity to come to a school and a situation such as Missouri Western was just to enticing to pass up,” said Dillon.  “I am excited to work with the current student-athletes and we will recruit nationally to build a team that will compete for MIAA Championships and NCAA Regionals on a yearly a basis.”

In addition to being the Women’s Golf Coach at CSUP, Dillon served as the Director of Instruction at Desert Hawk Golf Club in Pueblo.  He is a member of the Professional Golfers Association of America as he has Class A-1 Certification and has received commendation from the PGA as a junior golf instructor.

Dillon has extensive experience in the golf industry as before returning to CSU-Pueblo, he served as a golf professional in a variety of locations, including Pueblo West, Colorado; New Port Ritchie, Florida and Cheyenne, Wyoming including being the Head Golf Professional and General Manager of the Shadow Hills Golf Club in Canon City, Colorado for 17 years.

He also has an extensive background as a player.  Collegiately he’s an alum of CSUP and was a member of the ThunderWolves’ golf team from 1975-78 and helped lead the team to the 1978 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship where he was an all-RMAC selection, as well as two NCAA Division II Regional appearances (1976, 1978).  He currently competes in many PGA section events as well as other regional qualifiers.

Dillon will officially take over on September 9th as he will join the Griffon Men’s Golf Team in Kearney, Nebraska at the UNK Loper Invitational.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Missouri Western State University’s Director of Athletics, Kurt McGuffin has announced the hiring of two new coaches for the Women’s Tennis program Thursday morning. The Griffons have hired, the recently retired Men’s Basketball coach Tom Smith as the head coach while Raven Searcy, a four-year tennis athlete at Northwest Missouri State, will be the new graduate assistant. Smith takes over for former Tennis Coach Ron Selkirk.

Smith served as the basketball coach at Missouri Western for 25 years before retiring last March. He left the program as the all-time leader in wins and also accumulated more than 600 wins as a basketball coach throughout his 38 years in the coaching ranks.

Smith’s tennis knowledge dates back to his days at Valparaiso where he was the coach for three seasons. He was the Indiana Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year in 1966 after his squad won the conference title.  Smith’s wife, Patsy, is also a former Head Women’s Tennis Coach, and in 1998 she led Griffons to their first NCAA Tournament.

“I certainly do not profess to have the expertise that Coach Selkirk has, but what I can bring to the table is 46 years of coaching experience at the college level,” commented Coach Smith. “One of our objectives is to get the women’s tennis program more involved with the rest of the athletic department. Hopefully having a coach on campus help will expedite that move. ”

Searcy played for the Bearcats in the early 2000s. She was named to several all-conference teams, and played high school tennis for Central High School in St. Joseph. While at Central she was an All-State performer twice and compiled a record of 31-9.

She graduated from Northwest in the spring of 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

“Often times programs like tennis and golf feel like they are never part of an athletic department and it is very difficult to be a part-time coach to full-time student athletes,” stated Director of Athletic Kurt McGuffin. “Our main focus was to fully support these programs so that they have the tools to compete in this league. Coach Smith is dedicated to MWSU and its student athletes and along with Coach Searcy they will devote time and energy both on and off the court to provide a quality experience for our tennis student-athletes.”

— MWSU Sports Information —

Missouri Western State University had 32 student-athletes receive recognition by the Division 2 Athletic Directors Association (D2ADA) for their outstanding work in the classroom during the 2012-13 academic year. The Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2ADA) announced the 2012-13 recipients of the D2ADA Academic Achievement Awards on Wednesday, August 21. The Academic Achievement Awards is a program that recognizes the academic accomplishments of student-athletes at the Division 2 level.

A record number of institutions (169) and student-athletes (6,801) are being recognized for the 2012-13 Academic Achievement Awards. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Association had 759 student-athletes honored, a record-high for the program, followed by the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) with 653 student-athletes being recognized and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) with 635 student-athletes being acknowledged with this award.

“The D2ADA would like to thank and congratulate the institutions that took part in honoring the record-number of 6,854 student-athletes with 2012-13 Academic Achievement Awards,” stated D2ADA President Anita Barker, director of athletics at Chico State University.  “We continuously strive to recognize and honor deserving Division 2 student-athletes.  This award gives us the platform to showcase these individuals and their efforts in the classroom, as well as on the playing field.”

Click here to view the Missouri Western recipients.

— MWSU Sports Information —