 |  |
For Shorter's Greg Owens, winning is business as usual
ROME – He had tasted success in the
corporate world and figured he would try his hand in collegiate
coaching.
Oh, how the success has transitioned to the links for Shorter University head golf coach Greg Owens.
In three short years, Owens, a former small college golfer and longtime advocate of the game, has helped return the Shorter women’s golf program to prominence and into never before seen realms of success.
Since taking the job as head women’s golf coach one week before the start of the 2008-09 academic year, Owens has brought the program from the brink of collapse to the nation’s No. 1 ranking, a feat reiterated by the team’s title-winning performance at the Southern States Athletic Conference Championships in Columbus two weeks ago.
For his efforts, Owens was named the SSAC’s Women’s Golf Coach of the Year.
“We have come a long way [since 2008],” said Owens, a native of Los Angeles, Calif., and graduate of the University of Arkansas, who was a successful businessman before taking the reigns of the Shorter golf program. “This program has a history of success that was established long before I came, but to see how far we have progressed over the last three years and where the program appears to be headed, is something truly special.”
To understand the enormity of what the Lady Hawks have accomplished over the past several years, one must first understand the history.
The Shorter women’s golf program began in 2001 and first teed off under the leadership of current Shorter head women’s basketball coach, Vic Mitchell.
Led by Mitchell, the Lady Hawks captured three straight Region 13 championships from 2002-2004 and finished as the regional runner-up in 2005.
Mitchell stepped down after the 2005 season to focus on women’s basketball – he has won over 300 games as head of the Lady Hawks’ hoop squad – and the program suffered as a result.
When Owens arrived on The Hill three years later, he was greeted by five players, the best of which reported that fall with a cast on her leg. She eventually transferred out that same year.
Still, as all great businessmen do, Owens had a plan, one that focused on recruiting a certain type of athlete and one that he believed could eventually lead to success on a national level in the very near future.
“I knew the goal was to recruit and recruiting for the next season began immediately,” said Owens, who has successfully combined the recruitment of international students with bringing in hometown talent. “I wanted to combine good student with good athlete and my first question was always ‘What is your GPA?’
“I have been lucky with the students that have chosen to play golf at Shorter and I am absolutely convinced that because I have made being a good student a priority and not just being a good golfer, that has been the difference.
“I looked at this as a great challenge,” Owens said of taking the Shorter job. “I saw this as a mentoring opportunity.”
His philosophy worked immediately as Owens landed a prized recruit that has become the cornerstone of Shorter’s return to the top.
Owens signed Greta Lange, a talented product out of Bremen, Germany, as one of his first recruits for 2009-10 and while golf was certainly a draw for Lange, Owens’ different take on what he emphasized in a Lady Hawks golfer hit home right away.
“My success in recruiting Greta was that I talked about everything but golf – the school, positive relationships, opportunities academically – and she thought that Shorter would be a place where individuals were genuinely cared for and not solely cared for because of their athletic ability.
“That has come true for her.”
All Lange has done is repay her coach for his confidence.
Lange burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2010, leading the Lady Hawks to a return trip to the NAIA Women’s Golf National Championship and a 17th-place finish at the event – in the process, Lange was named a first team NAIA and PING All-American.
Her 2011 season has been one of the best ever by a Shorter women’s golfer with two tournament victories, a host of top-five finishes, an NAIA National Women’s Golfer of the Week award and her latest conquest, the title of 2011 Southern States Athletic Conference Golfer of the Year.
“With Greta, I had someone to build a team around,” said Owens. “I didn’t need to look for that star player – I could now get several very consistent players that could post low scores and really compliment what Greta brings to the table.”
Build a team Owens did.
While Shorter’s 2010-11 roster consists of six freshmen and zero seniors, the Lady Hawks certainly are not deprived of talent.
Headlining a deep roster are a pair of freshmen, Lisa Persson and Maria Bengtsson, both natives of Sweden who have made immediate impacts in their first year in Royal Blue and White.
Persson has two tournament victories at Shorter’s two most prominent tournaments of the season – the NAIA Preview in the fall and most recently, the Southern States Athletic Conference Championships in Columbus where she earned SSAC Freshman of the Year honors.
Bengtsson has been the rock solid third contributor to Shorter’s rotation, bettering her previous season-best finish of seventh place at the SCAD Invitational two weeks before the conference tournament with a second place showing at the SSAC Championships.
Add veteran Petra Muller, Shorter’s most experienced player as a junior, and freshman Gabriela Murcia to the mix, and you have the recipe for what has become arguably the best season in program history with five wins in 11 events and nothing worse than a runner-up finish all season.
“My expectations for this year included winning a few tournaments,” said Owens. “We had Lisa step up – I thought as a sophomore she would be a tournament winner – and Maria step up as well. Petra has been a terrific leader and mentor for our younger players.
“They just love being around each other and are always laughing, enjoying each other’s company.”
That togetherness and team chemistry has always been the end goal for Owens, who has called upon his experiences as a businessman to help shape his proven coaching philosophy.
Prior to his time as Shorter’s golf coach, Owens’ family was in the grocery store business and Owens himself owned several pizza parlors. Owens built his businesses around a common thread of teamwork and a personal touch.
“Being in business the saying is ‘you sell to sell again’ and you have to truly put the customer first,” Owens said. “You have to teach your employees how to treat people and how to get along with everyone. I planned on running my golf program how I did my businesses – helping young people become responsible adults by being on time, working hard and trying to make the most out of everything.
“As a coach, I look for a good student first and someone that is a happy person, meaning that they always look for the best in people, want to get along with others and share in the successes of others,” the coach added. “That makes a good team player.
“Right now we have eight girls that are that way. Not everyone plays in the tournaments, but they all share in the success.”
No doubt, just as Owens envisioned.
