Stephanie Young Position: Head Coach Experience: Fourth Year

Stephanie Young begins her fourth year as head coach of the Bowling Green State University women's golf team. She is the tenth head coach of the Falcons in the 40 years of the program.

Since joining the team midway through the 2005-06 season, coach Young and the Falcons have made major improvements to the landscape of the team. Thus far, she has guided the Falcons to three team titles, a three medalist crowns, and coached players to 23 top ten finishes, as well as, three MAC Players of the Week and a MAC Sportswoman of the Year.

In just their second tournament behind the helm of Young, the Falcons captured the St. George Invitational by seven shots with three BGSU players in the top seven. A tournament later, sophomore Jessica McCann was named Mid-American Conference Women's Golfer of the Week after shooting a career-best 152 (77-75) at the Illini Spring Classic. McCann was the first Falcon to garner the honor in nearly five years.

In the final tournament of the 05-06 season, BGSU and Young hosted the MAC Championships played at Walden Ponds in Indian Springs, Ohio. The Falcons were the lone team to improve all four rounds of the event (325-322-317-315) and Young coached all five of her players to establish personal-bests in the MAC Championships.

The team had success in the classroom, too. Sophomore Carley Hrusovsky was named to the Academic All-MAC Team; a honor that had not been awarded to a Falcon for three seasons. Though Hrusovsky was the lone Falcon to be named to the Academic All-MAC team, all six members of the women's golf program carried at least a 3.25 GPA.

This past season was filled with highlights as well. The 2007-08 team established a new school record low team average of 323.36, smashing the 2001-02 record by nearly a stroke. The Falcons captured the Falcon Invitational, and senior Carley Hrusovsky and Jessica McCann earned medalist at that same tournament. Hrusovsky was also awarded a post graduate scholarship, given 13 female athletes in the country that plan to pursue a career in college athletics.

In 2006-07, Young and the Falcons continued to show that they were on the right "course". The team won the YSU/ Taco Bell Invitational by ten strokes, making it the second straight season BGSU has taken the crown. Junior Jessica McCann also took the medalist title, finishing with rounds of (73-74). The impressive score of 147 set a new career-best for McCann, left her 2 shots shy of the 36-hole individual record, and gave the Falcons their first medalist since 2002. In the spring, Young's team broke the 54-hole school record by shooting a team score of 937(312-316-309), which was one better than the record set back in 1984. After hosting the team's first Falcon Invitational at Stone Ridge Golf Club, it was off to the MAC Championships at Longaberger Golf Club in Nashport, OH. The squad improved last year's standing in the conference with a seventh place finish.

Young also saw her lone senior, Kari Liggett, post an 11th place finish for the top Falcon performance in a MAC Championship since 2004, as well as, the fifth-best performance by a Falcon since the beginning of the MAC Championships in 1999. Liggett was also honored as the MAC Sportswoman of the Year, the first ever Falcon to earn this award, which is voted on solely by the players.

The women golfers also received much recognition for their academic efforts during the season. The National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) named BGSU juniors, Carley Hrusovsky and Lindsey Jonkhoff, to the prestigous All-American Scholar Team and ranked the BGSU Women's golf team 11th best in the country for team GPA. That same 3.64 GPA, helped the team win the BGSU Student-Athlete Services "Highest Team GPA Award". All seven squad members maintained at least a 3.24 GPA. Young and the Falcons also earned the NCAA Public Recognition Award for multi-year academic progress rate scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports.

Prior to BGSU, Young was an assistant professional at Sylvania Country Club for three years, while also serving as an assistant coach for the St. Ursula Academy's varsity golf team. In addition, she has served as an USGA intern for the Toledo District Golf Association, worked for the Toledo Junior Golf Association, and worked under head teaching professional James P. McGurk, who has been named #1 instructor in Ohio by Golf Magazine.

Young earned both her Bachelors degree in 2002 (Business Mgmt) and her MBA in 2003 from the University of Toledo. She was also a four year letterwinner and captain of the UT Women's Golf team from 1998-2002. Young helped her team win eight team titles and in 2000 she was the individual champion at the Bowling Green State Invitational.