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J.T. Higgins Hometown: Meridian, Idaho Position: Head Coach

"When J. T. Higgins was hired to replace legendary Bob Ellis as men's golf coach in 2001, the selection was met with rave reviews in the college golf world. In just eight seasons, he has taken the Aggies to the pinnacle of college golf."

Last season, Higgins led the Aggies to their first national championship in men's golf with a rousing 3-2 victory against Arkansas in the finals. A&M won a school-record four tournaments en route to the school's first national title in any sport since 1987 and its first in a men's sport since 1939.

A&M placed 12th at the 2008 NCAA Championship, at the time its highest finish since 1984. As a result, Higgins was selected as region coach of the year.

Higgins has produced six Academic All-Americans, twice as many as in all the years before his arrival. In 2006, Andrew Parr became A&M's first All-American since 1997. Bronson Burgoon earned All-America honors in 2007 and 2009, Nacho Elvira made the team in 2008 and Conrad Shindler was selected with Burgoon last year.

After struggling in his first season in 2001-02, Higgins' team came on strong at the end of 2002-03, winning the Border Olympics in dramatic comeback fashion, placing fourth at the Big 12 Championships and returning to postseason play with a bid to the NCAA Central Regional. For his efforts, Higgins received strong consideration for Big 12 coach of the year honors.

In 2003-04, Higgins led the Aggies to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1998. A&M made the cut and finished 14th, only the second top-15 finish for A&M since the mid-1980s. The Aggies followed with another NCAA appearance in 2005, earning Higgins NCAA Central Region Coach of the Year honors.

In 2005-06, the Aggies won two tournaments and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the third straight year. A&M was one of only 11 schools in the country to make three straight appearances at nationals. The Aggies finished the season ranked No. 6 in the nation by Golfweek.

In 2006-07, A&M was ranked in the top 10 most of the season and posted an impressive nine top-five finishes. The Aggies finished second at the Big 12 Championships and advanecd to regionals for the fourth straight year.

The 2001 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, Higgins led New Mexico to four NCAA regionals and two NCAA Championship appearances. In 2001, Higgins also was named District VII Coach of the Year by the Golf Coaches Association of America.

"I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to be the men's golf coach at Texas A&M," Higgins said. "A&M has one of the premier golf programs in the country, is a great academic institution and is located in a great community."

Higgins' UNM teams never finished below fourth at the conference championships and in 1998 won the NCAA West Regional. In 1998 and 2000, the Lobos advanced to the NCAA Championships.

Three UNM players earned All-America honors under Higgins' guidance and two were named conference Freshman of the Year. Four of Higgin's players were named Academic All-America and 12 earned academic all-conference honors. UNM's Wil Collins received the 2001 Ben Hogan Award, which recognizes the top student-athlete in college golf.

In 1999, Higgins coached the United States in the eighth annual World Junior Golf Team Championships in Japan, leading the Americans to a runner-up finish.

Prior to arriving at UNM in 1997, Higgins served as assistant coach at Nevada-Las Vegas under legendary coach Dwaine Knight from 1991-97. UNLV won the NCAA Championship in 1998, Higgins' first season at New Mexico, with many of the players he recruited. At UNLV, the Knight/Higgins duo achieved unparalleled success together as the Rebels appeared in the NCAA Championships all seven years, posting four top-10 finishes and a runner-up showing in 1996.

While at UNLV, Higgins served as the team's academic advisor and guided 19 of 20 Rebel golfers to graduation. He also was the Executive Director of the Rebel Golf Foundation, a booster club that raised more than $3.1 million for the men's golf program. The total moved the program close to endowing itself. In addition to academic and fund-raising duties, Higgins was in charge of accounting and team travel, and even served as a sports information assistant in 1990 before joining the coaching staff.

While in the SID office, Higgins served as publicist for the top-ranked UNLV men's basketball team, which advanced undefeated to the NCAA Final Four under legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Before working for UNLV, Higgins was the media relations director for the Las Vegas Stars, the AAA farm team of the San Diego Padres. With the Stars, Higgins designed the organization's first-ever media guide and helped orchestrate the local and national media coordination for the AAA All-Star game.

Higgins began his career in sports publicity at his alma mater, Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande, Ore. A star basketball and baseball player for Eastern Oregon, Higgins also was the school's sports information director during his junior and senior years. He graduated from EOSC in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a specialization in economics.

A native of Meridian, Idaho, Higgins has three children: Ashley-19, Ben-18, and Casey Lynn-15. He is married to the former Julie Parsen.

Direction of College Golf
"It's unbelievable. It seems like everyone is building their own golf course, getting huge endowments and has a large booster club. Everyone is getting bigger budgets and consequently, in the recruiting process, you have a lot of people competing for a few players. It's getting tougher to get good players. It seems everyone wants to have a good golf program and that's good for the game. A lot more teams are competitive. There also seems to be better athletes playing golf, guys who have played other sports. That's made the pool of good players a lot bigger, but at the same time more schools are competing to get those kids."

Philosophy about Golf
"I want to provide my players with the best possible opportunity to improve their games and themselves. That includes coaching, facilities and helping them with the mental side of the game. But the biggest thing is competition. My job is to bring in as many good players as I can and let them play and push each other to get better. That makes everyone work harder, it makes everyone get better grades. You can't screw up at all. You don't want academics to be the reason you're not playing. It's a unique sport because not everyone gets to travel. You only have five guys going on the road, so you have twice that many staying at home. If everyone is good and they are all going after the same thing, then everyone works harder and tries to improve. We want to provide the most competitive atmosphere we can and let the players determine who the best players are on their own."

Philosophy of Life
"It's a cliché, but you should try to live each day to the fullest, try to be a good person and everyday try to make you're little corner of the world a little better place. That may be giving a simple smile to someone walking down a hallway or being friendly to a stranger. Someone may be having the worst day of their life and your smile could have a positive impact on them. You may not even know you had an impact on them. I just try to be a nice person and leave my corner of the world a little better than I found it."

Lessons of Athletics
"One of the reasons that golf is such a great game is that you are your own referee. You have to call your own penalties. There are so many examples of guys going into the woods and no one in the world sees them do anything wrong, but they come out and call a penalty on themselves. Honesty, integrity and a strong character are such integral parts of being a great golfer. I'm blessed by being around these types of people. Athletics also teaches leadership skills. If I were running a company and was hiring employees, the first thing I would do is look for someone who participated in intercollegiate athletics. The demands on their time and the burdens they have to carry to get through school and play a sport is vastly underestimated. If they can get a degree and compete at the highest levels of college athletics, then they are probably someone who can do the job for you. Whatever it is, they will figure out a way to get it done. Those things are invaluable."

Personal Goals
"My personal goals are to build Texas A&M into one of the premier golf programs in the country. With the facilities here, we have absolutely no excuses. There is a lot of luck involved in winning a national championship. It has to be your week. But if we can be in the top 10 or 15 in the country year in and year out, we'll have a chance. One year, it might just be our week. I want for us to have that chance every year. We are attracting some of the best players in the country and I know we can get to that level."

Guiding Influences
"I've been very fortunate to work with some tremendous people over the years. The first great influence was my high school basketball coach. He put total responsibility on his players. We had to look at ourselves in the mirror when things went wrong. We couldn't blame our teammates, our coaches or our parents. The other huge influence in my life was Dwaine Knight at UNLV. He taught me everything I know about golf, about recruiting and about leading young men. He's a prime example of what a great coach should be. Everyday, I try to pattern myself after him. If I can do that, I'll be okay."

Importance of Academics
"Academics is the reason we're here. Every player on our team is perfectly clear on that. Everyone is going to graduate. Everyone is going to go to class and get good grades. The bottom line is this: Fewer than one percent of the players in college golf will ever play on the PGA TOUR. While we want our players to strive to play professional golf, because it's a great life, I also know the reality is that they probably won't be able to do that. Without a college degree, I wouldn't enjoy the incredible life I have now. I want every kid who comes here to not have any limits placed on them because they didn't finish their education. They may hate me for it now, but they will thank me for it later. Academics are the primary reason we are here. If we can win a few golf tournaments along the way, that's just icing on the cake."