WACO, Texas – The National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) has awarded the annual Coach of the Year honors, announced Monday. In addition, the Sportsmanship Team was announced as the Centenary Cyclones.
Nominations are taken from all schools for all categories in which they fit, a ballot is compiled and then the head coaches vote on the final recipients of the awards.
For Dual Discipline, Carol Gwin of South Carolina is the Head Coach of the Year, while her counterpart, TR Potts, is the Dual Western Coach of the Year. Texas A&M's Abby O'Mara earned Dual Jumping Seat Coach of the Year. On the Single Discipline side, Lynchburg's Phillip Williamson is the Coach of the Year, with assistant Fallyn Belcastro earning Single Jumping Seat Coach of the Year.
Carol Gwin, whose squads at SMU and now South Carolina have taken home the Dual Discipline NCEA Championship title in three of the last four years, has earned her third Head Coach of the Year nod, the most in NCEA history. Gwin led her Gamecocks to a 10-5 regular season and a 3-1 postseason which culminated in the NCEA Championship trophy. She saw her squad earn 38 MOPs during the season and had six on the All-Championship team, including three Championship MOPs. There were 45 members of her team named All-Academic and had eight named All-America. With Gwin at the helm in her second year back in Columbia, South Carolina had the most wins in a season since 2013-14, the most All-Americans and All-Academic accolades in program history, and just the second NCEA Rider of the Year in program history in Alexis Potts for Horsemanship. In addition, there were three SEC Riders of the Year named, seven All-SEC selections and her squad defeated the No. 1 ranked program three times, all in the spring semester. Gwin is the first coach in NCEA history to win titles at two different schools, and the fastest a South Carolina coach has won a championship title.
"Carol's commitment to the program, her student-athletes, and her support staff is unmatched," said assistant coach Sierra Swaffar. "Not only did she persuade the athletics department to greatly increase the salary of assistant coaches, she also persuaded the athletics department to hire an additional assistant coach. She also has made an instant impact at One Wood farm, by building extra stalls in order to increase the number of horses at the barn, while also remodeling the athletic training room, to ensure that our athletic training staff and student-athletes have a first-class space to receive care. Consistently, one of the most common compliments athletic department employees have made about Carol is that 'She truly cares about making her student-athletes happy and providing them with a wonderful experience.'"
TR Potts, also in his second year with the Gamecock program, earns his first Coach of the Year nod for Western. Under his purview, the Gamecocks had 11 regular season Western wins, three NCEA All-America selections, the NCEA and SEC Horsemanship Rider of the Year, the SEC Newcomer of the Year in Horsemanship and four All-SEC nods. The NCEA Rider of the Year nod was just the second-ever in program history, and the first for a Gamecock Horsemanship rider. Potts guided his squad to five Western sweeps in the regular season. This included the program’s first ever 5-0 Horsemanship sweep against Auburn (Feb. 7) in program history to help the Gamecocks defeat the No. 1 Tigers at home. The Reining crew then followed things up with a 4-0 sweep against No. 1 Georgia (Feb. 14) the following week to give South Carolina the 16-3 win for the most points ever scored against the Bulldogs in series history, and their second win over the No. 1 ranked team in the country. At the NCEA Championship, Potts’ athletes swept the two available MOPs, with Alexis Potts receiving the honor for Horsemanship and freshman Emily Patton getting the nod in Reining.
“Coach Potts is well spoken, kind, and amazing mentor for the student-athletes,” head coach Carol Gwin said. “His level of dedication is extremely impressive. The student-athletes have always felt comfortable talking with him about their goals, meeting with concerns, and has worked very hard to create a program that will not only win once but will continue to win championships.”
Abby O'Mara is in her ninth season with the Aggies, earning her second Jumping Seat Coach of the Year nod in Dual Discipine. She led her Jumping Seat squad to a 6-4 regular season record and 4-1 record for postseason, with nine regular season MOPs, leading to two NCEA All-America recipients, six NCEA All-Academic nods, one NCEA Championship MOP and two All-Championship squad members. At the National Championship, it was O'Mara's squad that led the comeback attempt in the final round, forcing the tiebreaker at 10-10. Her Jumping Seat riders went 3-0 as a unit at the Championship.
"Abby puts her relationships with her athletes first," said head coach Tana McKay. "She develops strong relationships so that her athletes can trust in her coaching. She wants the best from her athletes. She is hard on them and pushes them to the best of their ability, but does it from a place of love and trust. She believes in her athletes and kept her belief all the way through the national championship. She has turned this team into a Jumping Seat powerhouse, consistently recruiting top junior riders and develops them into some of the best collegiate riders."
Phillip Williamson has earned his third Single Discipline Coach of the Year nod after going 12-2 in the regular season and a perfect 4-0 in postseason play with his Lynchburg team. The Hornets won the ODAC Conference Championship and the NCEA Single Discipline title, accruing 16 regular-season MOPs, four All-America selections, a host of championship MOPs and All-Championship team nods, as well as the ODAC Flat Rider of the Year, Fences Rookie, Flat Rookie and Flat Rider of the Year. This was the fourth NCEA Single Discipline Championship title in five years for Williamson and his Hornets.
"Phillip is a mentor at his core," said assistant coach Adeline Callahan. "He supports his younger coaching staff whole heartedly and wants each of them to succeed. He is kind and thoughtful in his feedback and truly is a coaches coach. Beyond his squad to winning 4 out of the last 5 Single Discipline National Championships, he gives his all to each and every athlete, constantly and graciously preparing them for success in and out of the ring. He reenforces that horsemanship is at the core of everything we do and therefore is preparing his student-athletes for success far beyond just being competitive within the NCEA."
Earning her first NCEA coaching nod was assistant coach Fallyn Belcastro for Single Discipline Jumping Seat. After coaching her Flat squad to a 10-2-2 regular season and 3-0-1 postseason run culminating with an NCEA Championship title, Belcastro had one All-America recipient, eight regular-season Flat MOPs, two named ODAC All-Tournament and one Flat Championship MOP for the NCEA.
"Fallyn Belcastro is finishing her first season on the coaching staff at Lynchburg with a national title," said head coach Phillip Williamson. "She has made a signifiant impact on our student-athletes in and out of the ring. Her commitment to the flat squad especially has shown in their resiliency and their ability to get the points our team needs to win. With only one flat starter returning this year, she has been fundamental in getting a young and less experienced group to a competitive level. She has also been vital to the management of our horses, especially in their travel to postseason."
Centenary earned the Sportsmanship award, nominated and voted on by head coaches. The Cyclones picked up four wins in their second year in the NCEA, finishing the spring semester strong with three consecutive wins, all at home, including a win over then-No. 1 Dartmouth.
About the NCEA
A non-profit corporation, the NCEA is a governing body to advance the sport of equestrian. The NCEA is responsible for the development and administration of equestrian rules and guidelines. Equestrian is subject to all NCAA policies and procedures in the same manner as other sports. In 1998, Equestrian was identified and adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Committe of Women's Athletics (CWA) as an emerging sport for women at the Division I and II levels.
NCEA competitors are in a head-to-head format, and schools may choose to compete as a single or dual discipline team (Jumping Seat and Western). Each discipline has two events: in Jumping Seat, Fences and Flat, and in Western, Horsemanship and Reining. Teams can have five riders per event, with horses assigned by random draw at the start of the competition. Riders from opposing reams compete on the same horse, and whichever rider receives the higher score earns one point for her team. The level of difficulty is demonstrated by the accuracy of the pattern and how the competitor uses the horse to the best of her ability.
To stay up to date all year long on all things NCEA Equestrian, follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @NCEA_Equestrian and @ncea_eq.
- collegiateequestrian.com -