Press Release
3/10 - Bruins Name McCloskey Head Coach of New Women's Golf Program
NEWBERG, Ore. - Just three days after announcing the addition of women's golf to its intercollegiate athletics program, George Fox University has hired its first coach. MaryJo McCloskey joins the Bruins after eight years as the head women's golf coach at Lewis & Clark College.
McCloskey's Pioneer teams placed second in the Northwest Conference Championships each of the past three seasons, missing the 2005 title by only seven strokes. Under her guidance, the Pioneers produced one NWC individual champion, two Fall Classic individual champions, one Academic All-American, and numerous All-Conference players. In 2002, she coached the NCAA Division III Freshman of the Year. She also has served for several years on the NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championship selection committee.
McCloskey maintains a single-digit handicap, is a two-time club champion ('03 and '04) at The Oregon Golf Club in West Linn, and has competed in several amateur tournaments in the Pacific Northwest, including the Oregon Amateur, the Oregon Coast Invitational, and the Pacific Northwest Amateur. She serves on the board of directors for the Children's Course, a non-profit golf course affiliated with the First Tee program, which is dedicated to providing golfing opportunities for youth. She also worked for Peter Jacobsen's Fred Meyer Challenge golfing event for 12 years.
After playing four years of high school golf at St. Mary's Academy in Portland, she played in the collegiate ranks at the University of Oregon. She joined Lewis & Clark as an assistant golf coach in 1996, becoming head coach the following year.
McCloskey has a bachelor of arts in marketing from the University of Oregon, and a master's of business administration from the University of Portland. In addition to coaching, she works as a consultant in marketing, primarily helping small businesses with image development and printed materials for their customers, sales and advertising strategies, identifying target markets, and public relations. She and her husband Rick, also an avid golfer, reside in Tualatin.
"I'm very excited about the tremendous opportunity to build a women's golf program at George Fox," says McCloskey. "I believe golf teaches many life skills, and it will be rewarding to combine it with the values that George Fox upholds and provide women student-athletes the chance to play and compete."
"We are pleased to be able to start our new women's golf program by bringing in a coach with the credentials of MaryJo," says George Fox Director of Athletics Craig Taylor. "We expect a bright future for the program here because of a person of her caliber."
The women's golf program is the first new sport at George Fox since men's and women's tennis was introduced in 1996. The team will begin play this fall, competing in the Northwest Conference and the NCAA Division III.