Colton Cowan - Women's Golf Coach

Colton Cowan

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
colton.cowan@usm.edu
Phone:
266-5017

Southern Miss Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain announced on June 19, 2024, the hiring of Colton Cowan as the head women's golf coach.

In Cowan's first season with the Golden Eagles, he helped guide Southern Miss to arguably its best season in program history. The team notched a third-place finish in the second tournament of the season at the Hoover Invitational. The momentum reached its peak in the fall semester when Southern Miss won The Judson at Hattiesburg Country Club. Taylor Trible and Louise Cuyvers both grabbed top four finishes at The Judson as Southern Miss shot a semester-low 867 as a team.

The success kept rolling following winter break as Southern Miss returned to action at the Puerto Rico Shootout where it finishes third. A fourth-place finish followed at the Bama Beach Bash where it shaved off 14 strokes between the second and third rounds. The Golden Eagles then claimed another title when it cruised through the ULM Invitational. They also shot a season-low 859 54-hole total.

Cowan took Southern Miss into postseason play riding a hot streak, which followed the squad to Point Clear, Ala. for the Sun Belt Tournament. The Golden Eagles finished stroke play in third place and qualified for the four-team match play round. Meanwhile, Momoka Ando won the Sun Belt Individual title on day three of the event and became the first Golden Eagle in program history to claim a conference championship.

Matched up with No. 2 Coastal Carolina, the Golden Eagles won 3-2 to advance to the title bout against top-seeded Georgia Southern. Southern Miss beat the Eagles, 3.5-1.5, and were crowned Sun Belt champions. The win automatically qualified the Golden Eagles for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Southern Miss was sent to the NCAA Norman Regional and placed 12th.

Cowan came to Hattiesburg after spending the last three seasons as the head men's and women's golf coach at Henderson State. While in Arkadelphia, Cowan guided the Reddies to six Great American Conference Championships on both the men's and women's sides. He also helped both teams advance to three-straight NCAA DII Regionals, the women's team to three-straight NCAA DII National Championships and took the men's team to its first NCAA DII National Championships during the 2023-24 season. The women's team finished ninth, tied for third, and sixth in the nation in each of the last three seasons, respectively – they also won the NCAA DII Central Regional Tournament three-straight seasons. The men's team finished 12th in the nation this season. In total, Henderson State won 23 regular season tournaments under his tutelage.

Henderson State produced three-straight GAC Female Players of the Year and at least three All-Conference First Team members in each season. Cowan has also seen players earn three GAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Year honors, at least one WGCA All-American each season, two First Team All-Americans, and four GCAA PING All-Americans.

The Reddies earned their second-consecutive top-eight national finish this season and earned a berth to the national semifinals last season. Their trip to the semifinals was one of the best postseason finishes in Henderson State history – only two other Henderson State programs have reached a national semifinal. Cowan was named the GAC Women's Coach of the Year and Women's Region Coach of the year in his first two seasons in Arkadelphia and was the Men's GAC Coach of the Year for the 2022-23 season.

Prior to Henderson State, Cowan spent two seasons as the assistant women's golf coach at Austin Peay. He helped the Governors to four top-five finishes during the 2019-20 season before it was shorted due to COVID-19. They finished in sixth at the 2021 Ohio Valley Conference Championships.

The Piedmont, Okla. native got his coaching career started at Southwestern Oklahoma as a graduate assistant for his alma mater. Cowan was a three-year letterwinner for the Bulldogs from 2014-17 and was the graduate assistant coach for both the men's and women's teams until 2019.

During his two seasons as a coach in Weatherford, Cowan helped secure two appearances in the NCAA Central Regional Tournament and led the women's team to a berth in the 2019 NCAA National Finals. At the 2019 NCAA DII Championships, Southwestern Oklahoma advance to medal match play before losing in the national semifinals. He helped produce six academic all-americans and two WGCA all-region players.