Clayton Sikorski named director of golf at UNC, where he’ll oversee both the men’s and women’s programs
By Gary Baines – 8/13/2021 (Updated 8/14/2021)
With less than a month to go before the college golf season begins for some Colorado-based programs, the head coaching lineup for the local NCAA Division I teams is almost finalized — at least for the time being.
With an amazing five of the nine DI programs in the state changing coaches, four have now announced who will be at the helm to start the 2021-22 season.
The latest jobs filled were the University of Northern Colorado men’s and women’s positions. On Friday, UNC announced the hiring of a director of golf who will oversee both the men’s and women’s golf teams.
Clayton Sikorski was named the Bears’ director of golf following the offseason retirement of men’s head coach Roger Prenzlow and the departure of women’s head coach Ben Portie.
Sikorski spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach for the men’s golf team at Grand Canyon University in Arizona. GCU finished runner-up in the Western Athletic Conference Championship the last two years.
Prior to coaching at GCU, Sikorski started the men’s and women’s teams at NAIA Ottawa University in Surprise, Ariz., after being the men’s and women’s head coach at Oklahoma Wesleyan Univerisity, an NAIA program where Sikorski played his college golf.
Sikorski has been honored as GSAC Coach of the Year, a Dave Williams NAIA National Coach of the Year finalist and NAIA GCAA Western Region Coach of the Year.
Several Coloradans play for UNC, including Jack Castiglia of Lakewood, TJ Shehee of Mead, Westin Pals of Castle Rock and Marcus Tait of Littleton on the men’s side, and Amy Chitkoksoong of Aurora and Jenna Chun of Highlands Ranch on the women’s.
The only DI program that has yet to announce its golf head coach for 2021-22 is the University of Denver women following Lindsay Kuhle taking the women’s coaching job at the University of Kansas. But the Aspen Times reported last weekend that Aspen High School athletic director Martha Richards has resigned to take the DU women’s golf head coaching job. Richards was the head coach at Vanderbilt and the University of Texas for seven years each from 2000-14 after being at the Boise State helm in 1997-98. She played both golf and basketball at Stanford, helping the Cardinal win the NCAA women’s hoops title in 1990.
Here’s the status of the DI head coaching changes in Colorado golf programs:
— Air Force Academy Men: George Koury has been succeeded on an interim basis by Tyler Goulding.
— University of Denver Men: Trake Carpenter has been succeeded by Logan Goulding.
— DU Women: Lindsay Kuhle’s successor has not yet been announced, but Martha Richards reportedly is the next head coach.
— University of Northern Colorado Men: Roger Prenzlow has been succeeded by director of golf Clayton Sikorski.
— UNC Women: Ben Portie has been succeeded by director of golf Clayton Sikorski.