Year: 14th Year
Previous College: VCU '87
Matt Ball has seen golf from all sides.
He’s played, he’s been a club professional, a teaching
pro and he’s currently Virginia Commonwealth
University’s golf coach. In that job, all the skills he
learned come into play – along with some new ones.
“What I really enjoy,” Ball said, “is seeing
kids do better as a group than they thought they could
do.”
That’s where Ball’s ability to multi-task comes into
play. He calls himself “a dad, a sports psychologist, a
counselor, a coach. You name it.”
Golf is unique in that it is an individual sport as well as a team
sport. One player can be crowned champion in a tournament. If his
teammates don’t do well, the team won’t finish
well. Keeping an eye on individual and team
progress is a trick Ball has to ingrain in his players.
“The big thing with golf is
there’s too much time to think,” said Ball, the 2008
Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year. “I
like challenging the guys and trying to help them see things
differently. I think in competition with most people, it is like
their heads are in a vise. All they see is trying to get
through the round in as few strokes as possible and they
don’t see the risks and the rewards.
“I see things from a different perspective and I try to get
them to learn to see things from a broader view – taking the
whole thing into account rather than this one thing they have to
pull off with this shot. You can’t worry about the
‘what ifs’ but you have to take into account the
strategy and the percentage of pulling shots off. And you are
playing for a team and not just yourself so if you make a mistake
it does affect everybody. So make decisions accordingly. Come
up with a good, solid round without too much risk but without being
scared, either.”
Ball graduated cum laude from VCU in 1987
with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He was named to the
Golf Coaches Association of America’s Academic All-America
team in 1987. He was good on the course, too, twice earning
medalist honors.
He returned to his alma mater in 1999 to become the school’s
first full-time golf coach. In between, he worked as a professional
at several area clubs.
Ball’s first three teams won CAA championships, and he
added a fourth in 2009. He’s coached the only two VCU
individuals to qualify for the NCAA tournament (Reg Millage in 2000
and Ted Brown in 2003). His 2002 team qualified for the NCAA
Championships.
He has built a program that is equipped to challenge for the CAA
title regularly.
“I’m thrilled about Coach Ball being CAA Coach of the
Year last season. I think it was well deserved,” said VCU
Director of Athletics Norwood T. Teague. “He is
passionately committed to building that program, passionately
committed to those kids.
“Matt is a great golf teacher. He’s also well
connected in the golf community and that helps us a great deal. I
have such great trust in Matt and know he’ll always do the
right thing. The future is going to be terrific.”
Ball agrees. His experience at VCU “was great. I loved it.
That’s a major reason why I’m back.”
He’s seen support for the program grow in recent years and
that helps his team “feel like we’re playing for more
people and not just playing for ourselves and our parents. It just
seems like there’s a lot more people who care.
“The bar is set a little higher. We have a very supportive
athletic department.”
Regardless of the makeup of his roster, Ball will continue to
focus on course management, mentally and physically. Most players
come to him, he said, with well developed swings. Getting around
the course and getting used to the highly competitive team aspect
takes more work.
“By the time players get to this level, they
have a golf swing that’s their own,” Ball said.
“I try to work with their current instructors and work
through them, using them to input my swing ideas and such. I try to
work with players directly on course management and the short game
a lot. I like to be out on the course with the guys, working on the
game of golf.
“There’s no defense
in golf. I say that all the time. It is basically you against the
golf course. You need to come up
with the total number at the end that is as efficient as possible
without taking undue risk along the way.”
Ball
also likes to keep his program involved off the course. The Rams
are active participants with the Richmond First Tee that is part of
a national program that increases children’s exposure to golf
by making it more affordable and accessible. The team also works
with local youngsters at a number of area clinics. Ball founded the
Richmond Area Junior Interclub and, more recently, the Virginia
Junior Golf Alliance that is aimed at putting programs in place to
help competitive junior golfers develop at a faster pace.
A native of Fredericksburg, Va., Ball and his wife, Kim, have two
sons, Matthew and Adam. Both sons are competitive golfers at the
state and national levels.
MATT BALL
Career Highlights
• Two-time CAA Coach of the Year (2008, 2009)
• Led Rams to four CAA Championships (2000-02, 2009)
• Has Guided VCU to four NCAA Regionals (2000-02, 2009)
• Directed the Rams to the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
• Coached two CAA Players of the Year (Reg Millage, 2000;
Lanto Griffin, 2009)
• The Rams have collected 18 All-CAA citations under his
watch.
Team Titles (13)
• CAA Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009)
• Birkdale Classic (March 11-12, 2000)
• Bradford Creek Intercollegiate (March 17-18, 2000)
• First Bank Intercollegiate (Sept. 25-26, 2000)
• Treasure Coast Classic (March 16-18, 2001)
• Raines Development Group Intercollegiate (Sept. 20-21,
2004)
• ODU/Seascape Invitational (Oct. 25-26, 2004)
• Argonaut Invitational (Feb. 26-27, 2007)
• Palmas Del Mar Intercollegiate (March 9-11, 2009)
• Palisades Intercollegiate (April 13-14, 2009)
