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Director of Men's and Women's Golf and Associate Athletic Director
Jim Owen
Coach Owen is in his 26th year at Oglethorpe University. This
season marks Owen's fifthteenth year coaching the men's golf team and
fourth year with the women's program. Owen, a
1981 graduate of Berry College, arrived on campus in the summer of
1981 as a graduate assistant basketball coach and intramural
director. At Berry, Owen was a three year starting guard and was
named basketball team MVP his senior season. He was named Most
Outstanding Senior Athlete at Berry College later that spring. He
served as an assistant basketball coach from 1981-1997 before
assuming the head coaching responsibilities from 1998-2003. During
his tenure, Oglethorpe joined the NCAA
Division III and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC)
and expanded the sports programs offered at Oglethorpe from six to
fourteen.
In 1993, Owen took two individual male golfers to the SCAC Conference golf championship in Jackson, Mississippi. Those
two golfers began the program that has developed in the last twelve
years into one of the most respected in the nation. Since 1997, a
span of ten consecutive years, the Stormy Petrel men have been
ranked in the top 25 in the nation. They have been ranked in the top
10 for seven consecutive years and inside the top 5 for each of the
last five years. Owen has coached 25 All-SCAC
performers including four in 2003 when Oglethorpe's Trent Erb, Chris
Summers, Robert Miller, and Corey Garner swept the top four 1st team
All-SCAC spots in Terre Haute, Indiana.
 Owen has coached six
men's SCAC Championship teams in the past eight years including four in a row
from 2000-2003. He has been named SCAC Coach of the Year
for the last seven consecutive years. Owen was honored as the South Region Coach of the Year in
2002 and was a finalist for 2002 NCAA National Coach of the Year.
He has coached six SCAC Player's of the Year including Tolliver
Williams (1996, 1998), Robert Fink (2001), Chris Summers (2002), and
Trent Erb in 2003 and 2004.
On the regional and national level, Owen had had eight of his
thirteen
teams represented at the NCAA National Tournament. The Stormy
Petrels have had eight Academic All-Americans and ten NCAA
Division III All-Americans
since the 1998 season. In 2003 Joe Green was honored with
Oglethorpe's first National Freshman of the
Year Award. Last year, freshman Taylor Urbanski was honored as the
South Region Freshman of the Year Award and was a finalist for
National Freshman of the Year. In 2005 Green and Urbanski were named
to the prestigious twelve member All-South Region team bringing the
total to nine All-Region players honored
from Oglethorpe in his tenure. Owen has served two terms on the NCAA South Region
National Selection Committee (1999-2001 and 2003-2005).
Oglethorpe, in partnership with the Central Florida Sports
Commission, hosted the 2005 Men's NCAA Division III
National Tournament at the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort near
Orlando, Florida. In 2006 and 2007 Oglethorpe has been awarded the
Women's NCAA Division III National Championships.
In the fall of 2003 Owen retired from his basketball
coaching duties and officially began the women's golf program. The
women's team has been an off again on again process since its
inception in 1998 with five different coaches in the last six
years. Owen has brought increasing continuity to the women's program
and consistency in recruiting. In 2006, the women broke through with a spectacular 2nd place finish at the SCAC Conference Championship and has since cracked the national top ten in the fall of 2007
The Stormy Petrels fielded teams that competed in the SCAC tournament in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 with their best
finishes being fifth place in 1998, 1999, and 2001. In 1999 and
again as a senior in 2001, Kristi Wright earned 2nd Team All-SCAC
for her play at the Spring Festival. Her rounds of 89-81=170
still stands as the Oglethorpe SCAC Conference scoring record.
In 2004 and again in 2005 the Stormy Petrel women finished fifth
in SCAC Conference Championship play. At the Renaissance PineIsle
Resort golf course hosted by Oglethorpe University in 2004 on
beautiful Lake Lanier Heather March earned second team SCAC honors.
In 2005 in Arkansas, freshman Julia Gates and junior Mallory Pusch both
earned second team SCAC honors.Last year, Carrie Shirah earned first team honors while finishing a school best second overall losing in a playoff to three-time SCAC POTY Sarah Gates from DePauw. Carrie's round of 85-79-164 set a new school record for SCAC play, Julia Gates and Mallory Pusch earned 2nd Team honors for the second consecutive year.
The 2006-07 team has loftier goals and finished the fall season
ranked #10 in the nation. They also rank in the top twenty in Freshman
Class Impact for the fall season.
Owen was inducted in May of 2001 into the Oglethorpe Athletic
Hall of Fame for his twenty years of dedicated service to the
University. Owen lives in Alpharetta, Georgia with his wife Anjie
and their children Jayce, 15, and Michaela, 10.
Head Women's Golf Coach: Cindy Vaios
Cindy comes to Oglethorpe with over 20 years experience in the golf industry. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1984, where she was a member of the first women’s golf team and a 4 year starter on the Women’s basketball team, she played 5 years on The Futures Golf Tour. Turning her focus to the business and teaching sides of the golf industry, Cindy is one of a small number who has held membership in both the PGA of America, being the first recipient of the PGA of America’s Apprentice of the Year Award, and the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Division. After serving as Head Golf Professional at Wyndemere CC in Naples, Fl. and Director of Women’s Programs for The Academy of Golf at PGA National resort and Spa she decided to turn her focus onto coaching. Cindy’s passion for basketball never left, so with her duties as Women’s Golf coach, she also volunteers with women’s basketball program.
Director of Women's Golf Instruction
Jackie Cannizzo
PGA Classification: Class A
Address:
Country Club of Roswell
2500 Club Springs Drive
Roswell, Georgia
30076 United States
Jackie Cannizzo, Class A PGA Professional, Director of Instruction and Junior Golf Director at the Country Club of Roswell. I have been at the Country Club of Roswell for over 9 years. I am originally from Syracuse, NY. I played college golf at Florida State and University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where I received a BA in Communications. I have played golf for over 30 years, playing professionally for the last 18 in PGA Section events, The Futures Golf Tour, The European Golf Tour, The United States Women’s Open (where I was the first PGA member to play in the Women’s US Open), and various professional events. I have been a PGA member since 1989 and have been teaching and coaching golf throughout that time. My experience with teaching and coaching has been at Private Clubs, Resorts (United States & International), and Golf Schools. I teach various age ranges & levels from beginners, to tour players and believe that with good coaching, anyone can play this great game of golf. I have been actively coaching juniors for over 15 years with players competing at all levels in local, state and national tournaments. I am currently President of the Georgia Junior Golf Foundation Board and served on the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Board in Atlanta. I was recently awarded the Georgia PGA Assistant of the year in the North Chapter, the PGA Junior Golf Leader in the North Section, and the PGA Junior Golf Leader for the entire Georgia PGA Section. I am ranked (by my peers) in the top ten list of best teachers in the state of Georgia by GOLF DIGEST magazine and have been selected as one of the Top 50 Teachers for juniors by US Kids Golf.
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