Delaware Tech golf team has eye on the prize
(Photo Submitted)
Coaches Tom Butterly and Justen Albright with last year’s golf athletes.
By Nick Newell
Tom Butterly and Justen Albright have high hopes for the upcoming spring season of golf for Delaware Technical Community College, Owens Campus.
Coach Butterly explained that golf is a team sport and an individual sport in competition. Coaches select five players to compete at a match and the lowest four scores in the competition count for the team.
Teams play to qualify for regionals and then two teams are selected from regionals to compete in the National NJCAA Division III Golf Championship in Chautauqua, New York.
While competing with the team, players can qualify for regionals as a team and/or individually.
Delaware Tech has qualified for regionals for multiple years and under Coach Butterly seven players have qualified for the National Championship. Delaware Tech qualified as a team last season for regionals, but could not compete due to not having enough players for the tournament.
The team made the cut down to the minimum four players for the Regional Championship and one player could not compete the day of the tournament due to personal reasons, thus forfeiting the team, Butterly said.
The home course for Delaware Tech is Baywood Greens in Long Neck.
Butterly said other courses such as Heritage Shores, Sussex Pines, and Bayside Resort, have all been accommodating for the school program.
“All these local courses have been really wonderful about us using their courses because we have players from all over the county,” he said.
Delaware Tech holds spring training for its athletes in Pinehurst, North Carolina, a previous host to the Men’s and Women’s U.S. Open.
“It is a phenomenal place and gives our athletes a chance to play on some of the best professional courses,” Butterly said.
One of the main tasks for the coaches is recruiting players for the upcoming seasons.
There are players starting to show up for the school that the coaches have been recruiting for several years and Coach Butterly likes what he sees so far.
“We are excited about their ability.” he said. “I am personally excited about their attitude.”
Coach Albright said coaching is more than just the sport of golf to him.
“I still keep in touch with some of the players that I coached two years ago when I first started. It’s not just coaching; you build relationships,” he added.
Since Delaware Tech is a two-year college, there are no returning players from last season for the upcoming Spring season.
The coaches said there are seven to eight players who have shown interest in golf at Delaware Tech, but the team is in need of female athletes. The team has not had a female athlete in more than three years.
Coach Butterly said the sport needs more women from the area.
“Since there are not many women in the region, usually they will compete on the men’s team,” he said.
Butterly added that female golfers are highly recruited by four-year universities because there are not many to pick from the region.
Coach Butterly is an Economics, Political Science, and Sociology instructor at Delaware Tech for the Owens Campus. He was an assistant coach for seven years and then became head coach three seasons ago.
Coach Albright is an accountant in the business office at Delaware Tech and became an assistant coach two years ago.
For more information on the golf program at Delaware Tech for the Spring 2016 season, contact Coach Tom Butterly at tbutterl@dtcc.edu or Coach Justen Albright at jalbrigh@dtcc.edu.