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05/12/2012 Women's Golf Secures Seventh Straight NCAA Championships BidCrimson Tide finishes tied for fourth to advance to the Vanderbilt Legends Club on May 22-25 05/11/2012 Women's Golf Remains in Second at NCAA East RegionalCrimson Tide shoots 297 in windy conditions at the Penn State Blue Course 05/10/2012 Women's Golf Second at NCAA East RegionalCrimson Tide shoots 4-over 292 after 18 holes at the Penn State Blue Course 05/09/2012 Women's Golf Begins Play at NCAA East RegionalCrimson Tide looks to secure its seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships 05/04/2012 Women's Golf has Three Players Selected First-Team All-SECMic Potter is the Co-Coach of the Year and Brooke Pancake becomes a three-time SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Entering his seventh season at the helm of the Alabama women's golf program, and his 30th overall in college golf, head coach Mic Potter has already established his own legacy. Potter, who came to the Capstone after a Hall-of-Fame career at Furman, led the Tide to its second NCAA Championship appearance in program history in his first year at Alabama and repeated the feat in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, reaffirming his status as one of the prominent coaches in women's collegiate golf. His reclamation project in Tuscaloosa is one of the most impressive turnarounds in collegiate golf history. The honors continue to pile up for Potter, who helped the Crimson Tide develop into a national power in the ultra-competitive SEC. The veteran coach won his 11th Conference Coach of the Year award and his third in the SEC in 2011 after leading the Crimson Tide to the best regular-season in school history. He was also named the SkyCaddie NGCA East Region Coach of the Year in 2011. Alabama's 2010-11 team once again turned in an outstanding season as the Crimson Tide continued its climb into the elite of women's collegiate golf. This past year's Crimson Tide team spent the entire season in the top five with a school-record five wins -- NCAA Fall Preview, Tar Heel Invitational, Lady Puerto Rico Classic, Liz Murphey Classic and the NCAA East Regional. The Tide also posted a tie for eight at the NCAA Championships. Two UA players captured medalist honors this season. True freshman Stephanie Meadow has a school-record three wins (Lady Puerto Rico Classic, Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate and NCAA East Regional. Junior Brooke Pancake won the Tar Heel Invitational in the fall with an 11-under-par 206 as the team set the school record with a 28-under-par total of 836. UA's Meadow and Pancake were selected as first-team All-Americans while Camilla Lennarth garnered third-team honors. The Tide also had three first-team All-SEC selections (Meadow, Pancake and Lennarth) and one second-team choice (Jennifer Kirby). Potter was named the SEC Coach of the Year, Pancake the Student-Athlete of the Year and Meadow was the co-Freshman of the Year. The 2010 SEC Championship for Potter's team was a springboard for the school's best NCAA Championships finish, a third-place showing, just four strokes off a national championship. UA also captured a team win at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic. The Tide also had three players finish in the top 15 individually at NCAAs, with Kirby tied for seventh, Pancake 12th and Lennarth tied for 13th. That trio garnered All-America honors as well with Lennarth earning second-team honors while Kirby and Pancake were named honorable mention selections. Lennarth and Kirby were also first-team All-SEC selections with Kirby being named the league's Freshman of the Year. Pancake was a second-team All-SEC selection and the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year while earning the NCAA Elite 88 Award at the NCAA Championships as the player in the field with the highest grade point average (4.0). Potter was also named the SEC and NGCA East Region Coach of the Year. Potter's 2009-10 team also set several school records. Lennarth set a new single-season scoring record with a 72.59 average and Kirby broke the freshman scoring record with a 73.06 average, shattering the year-old mark of 74.06 set by Pancake in 2008-09. The team set a new 54-hole scoring record with a 4-under-par 848 to clinch the SEC Championship. Two Alabama NCAA scoring records also fell with the Tide posting a 5-over-par 1,157 over 72 holes at the NCAA Championships on the Dye Course at Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, N.C., and Kirby's individual 72-hole scoring mark of 4-under-par 284. Potter's 2008-09 team was a fixture in the top 10 nationally. The Crimson Tide finished the year 11th at the NCAA Championships and were ranked eighth nationally in the NGCA Coaches' Poll and seventh in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. The Tide captured their fifth tournament victory under Potter's guidance in 2009 at the First Market Bank Intercollegiate. Alabama also finished tied for second at the SEC Championships and second at the NCAA East Regional. UA had two players, Kathleen Ekey and Lennarth, earn first-team All-SEC honors in 2009 while Pancake was selected to the league's All-Freshman Team and awarded second-team All-SEC recognition. Potter again produced All-Americans with Ekey and Lennarth garnering honorable mention accolades. In 2007, Potter helped two-time All-SEC performer Jenny Suh leave as an All-American. Potter followed that up when Ekey earned All-American honors in just her first season at Alabama in 2008. Ekey broke Suh's school-record single-season scoring average by posting a 73.30. Ekey, Lennarth and Pancake all earned NGCA All-East Region honors as well in 2009. The 2007-08 season saw Alabama put together its then-most successful season. The Crimson Tide earned its third straight berth to the postseason and finished the season ranked No. 12 in the nation - a school record. Alabama won three tournaments on the season, including the Crimson Tide Classic in record breaking fashion. Alabama turned in a school-record 54-hole score of 861 (-3) at the Ol' Colony Golf Complex. UA shot a final round score of 279 (-9), also a school record to wrap up the Crimson Tide Classic. Five Tide golfers finished in the top 10 in the tournament to lead Alabama to a 42-stroke victory over runner-up LSU at the par-72, 6,033 yard Jerry Pate designed course. Ekey shot a school record and women's course record score of 65 (-7) to finish with a 54-hole score of 203 (-13) to win the tournament. At the NCAA Championships Potter led Alabama to its second-best result in school history. The Crimson Tide placed 12th overall and again improved on the previous year's results - something Alabama has accomplished each season under Potter. The Crimson Tide also earned tournament titles at the Wildcat Fall Invitational with a score of 889 and at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic. After the Classic, Sarah Sturm was named the Golf World Player of the Week. The legendary coach made an impact from the start. In his first season, Potter led his team to a tournament championship in his very first outing by winning Alabama's own UA-Ann Rhoads Invitational in early September. The team set a school record that spring by shooting a 290 at the LSU/Cleveland Classic in March, and recorded two top-five finishes in the spring season. After qualifying for the East regional, the Crimson Tide put together an unlikely postseason run by defeating Virginia in a playoff to advance to the school's second-ever NCAA Championship. Looking back on that resume, it comes as no surprise that Potter had his first Tide team competing for a national championship. On June 17, 2005, the University of Alabama named 1994 NGCA Hall of Fame honoree Potter as its new women's golf coach. By doing so, the Crimson Tide added one of the most illustrious names in women's golf to its already rich golf heritage. Potter, one of the most experienced and successful coaches, has one of the most outstanding resumes in the nation, having guided Furman, a school competing in the Southern Conference, to national prominence in a long career with the Paladins. A 1994 National Golf Coaches Hall of Fame inductee, Potter spent 23 years coaching the Furman women's team, including 10 years during which he served as the Paladins' Director of Intercollegiate Golf. During his two-decade tenure with the Paladins, Potter guided Furman to 15 NCAA Championship berths and six top-10 national finishes, including an NCAA runner-up finish in 1987. He has yet to coach a season in which his team has not reached NCAA Regional competition, a streak dating back to 1993, the first season in which the Regional format was established. Potter's coaching accomplishments stand alone as an indication of the abilities of the 55-year old mentor. In addition to these outstanding achievements, his players have recorded astounding success, at both the intercollegiate level and in the professional ranks. The ability to build and maintain a program are certainly among Potter's strengths when considering the amazing run of success he had throughout his career at Furman. Potter took the school, with an enrollment of about 2,500 students, in to the upper tier of women's golf schools, leading the Paladins to unprecedented heights. Potter was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year eight times and led his Furman teams to 36 tournament titles while his Tide teams have captured seven tournament wins, which put him third among all active women's golf coaches. To put that remarkable statistic in perspective, the Alabama women's golf program had won 19 team titles through the beginning of the 2005-06 season, a span of 31 years. The Paladins won 10 Southern Conference Championships since the tournament's inception in 1994, including the 2004-05 championship. He has coached 26 NGCA All-Americans, 21 NGCA All-Scholar Team selections, 42 All-Conference selections, six players to nine first-team All-SEC awards, 12 conference players of the year and six conference freshmen of the year. One of the most important standards of success for any coach in major collegiate athletics is his or her ability to place players in the professional ranks while guiding them to a degree. Measuring Potter by these standards again places him among the very best in the nation. In 2004, Potter had seven of his former pupils on the LPGA tour, more than any other college coach from one school. In fact, only four schools: Arizona, Arizona State, Florida and Texas, had more than seven athletes on the LPGA player list in 2004. More importantly, each of the seven players coached by Potter had earned a degree. In the exceedingly competitive LPGA atmosphere, Potter's former players have had long, successful careers in professional golf. Through the end of the 2004 season, former Potter pupils had amassed over 65 seasons on tour and over $8.5 million in career earnings. Leading that group is former Furman standout and Paladin Hall-of-Famer Dottie Pepper. Pepper had an illustrious LPGA career, winning 17 events, including the 1992 and 1999 Kraft Nabisco Championships. She earned over $5 million in career winnings before ending her 20-year professional career in 2003. By any standard, Mic Potter has proven to be one of the best women's golf coaches in the nation for more than two decades. He has built a successful program and maintained that by recruiting and cultivating talented players who advance to the professional ranks and obtain their degrees. A 1977 graduate of Cortland State University, Potter majored in physical education while earning four varsity letters: three in soccer and one in golf. He is married to the former Kim O'Branski of Ithaca, N.Y. The couple has two sons, Ryan and Corey. THE MIC POTTER FILE LPGA PLAYERS POTTER HAS COACHED |
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