LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State Athletics Department reached into its past Friday, July 14, in an effort to bolster its women's golf program as Athletics Director Dr. McKinley Boston announced that former head coach Paul Brilliant has been hired to lead the Aggie women's golf team.
Brilliant served as New Mexico State's first women's golf coach from 1982-1992 and now returns to his alma mater to replace Joann Cox, who retired, on June 30, 2006. Despite a 14-year hiatus from the collegiate game, Brilliant has continued to coach and mentor young golfers.
Brilliant coached former Aggie and current professional golfers Alena Sharp, Kelly Cavanaugh and Rachel Bailey when they joined the professional ranks. Sharp, who is currently in her first season as an exempt player on the LPGA Tour, has competed in 13 tournaments and earned $52,452 in career winnings. She currently ranks eighth on tour in driving distance (269.3) and is tied for 20th in green in regulation (1.78).
Bailey, who graduated from New Mexico State in 2003 with a degree in marketing, has been a member of the Duramed FURTURES TOUR for three seasons. She recorded her best career finish with a tie for third at the 2006 Louisiana FUTURES Classic in Lafayette, La. This fall Bailey will be one of nine players who are going to compete on the Golf Channel's reality show Big Break VI. Cavanaugh, who joined the professional ranks in 2003, has been a member of the Duramed FUTURES TOUR for two seasons. This year Cavanaugh has played in 10 events while making five cuts.
Brilliant has also spent the last year working as the short game coach for former Aggie and 2002 PGA Champion Rich Beem.
"Paul had a lot of success in his time as head coach and the chance to bring that type of success back to the program was a great opportunity for us as a department," Boston said. "Our women's golf program is in a time of transition right now and having had conversations with people in the community I felt that Paul would be a great choice to help us reenergize the program and to provide us with an opportunity to build broader local support for the team."
"I decided I wanted to come back to NMSU because the chance to work with individuals such as Dr. (McKinley) Boston and Dr. (Michael) Martin is a great opportunity," Brilliant said. "The men's program has done very well over the last couple of years and what we want to do now is get the women's program back to winning conference championships and continue to build a name for ourselves as one of the premiere programs in the country."
"When I was here before we were able to recruit student-athletes from areas where you couldn't play golf year-round and that was a great advantage for us," Brilliant said. "We were also able to fill out a schedule where we played the best teams in the country and that is how players get better."
"I believe that Paul's reputation and the success of our former student-athletes will contribute to our ability to recruiting nationally as well as regionally in support of the program," Boston said. "Our program has been quite successful over the years, but our goal now is to not only be competitive in the WAC and around the nation, but to create a team that is nationally ranked on a consistent basis and I am comfortable that Paul can help us achieve that goal."
A 1999 and 2005 inductee of the New Mexico State Sports Hall of Fame, Brilliant was also inducted into the National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000. Two years later, Brilliant was elected a lifetime member of the National Golf Coaches Association and in 2003 he was the recipient of the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award (Sun Country Section).
During his decade as head coach, Brilliant was responsible for building the New Mexico State women's golf team into one of the premiere collegiate programs in the country. A four-time High Country Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, Brilliant led the Roadrunners to a trio of High Country Athletic Conference titles and three trips to the NCAA Championships (1988, 1989, 1991). Under Brilliant's guidance, the Roadrunners garnered three All- America honors and 19 all- conference accolades.
After finishing third or better in their first three High Country Athletic Conference Championships, Brilliant and the Roadrunners broke through with the team's first ever win at the 1986 High Country Athletic Conference Championships in Provo, Utah. The conference title was also the first for a NMSU's women's sports programs. The Roadrunners' second win came the next year as NMSU took home the title at the Lady Ram Invitational in Fort Collins, Colo.
Brilliant continued to elevate the Roadrunners' level of play as NMSU posted five top-3 finishes during the 1987-88 season, including a win at the Susie M. Berning Invitational in Norman, Okla. NMSU also made history that season as the team hosted and advanced to its first NCAA Championships in school history.
A year later, Brilliant and the Roadrunners recorded another first in program history as NMSU posted two wins in a season. After winning the Diet Coke- Roadrunner Invitational to begin the season, NMSU took home its second High Country Athletic Conference title before advancing to the 1989 NCAA Championships in Palo Alto, Calif. The following fall, Brilliant's Roadrunners became the only NMSU sports program in school history to be ranked No. 1 in the nation.
In 1990-91, the Roadrunners moved into the Big West Conference and quickly made a name for themselves as NMSU won back-to-back tournaments to open the season and had three players named first team All-Big West. The Roadrunners finished second at their first Big West Conference Championships and advanced back to the NCAA Championships for the third time to four years.
In his last season at NMSU, Brilliant led the Roadrunners to four top-5 finishes and four all-conference selections, including Tina Drabble who was a first team pick for the second straight year.
As Brilliant begins his second go around with NMSU, he is certainly not starting from scratch this time. The Aggie women's golf program has advanced to the NCAA Regionals 12 of the last 13 years and returns two of the best players in the Western Athletic Conference in seniors-to-be Lehua Wise (Lihue, Kauai, Hawai'i) and Inah Park (Richmond, British Columbia). Wise, a second team All-WAC pick last season, was the top Aggie finisher in eight tournaments last season, including a sixth-place finish at the WAC Championships.