The 2011-12 Oglethorpe men's golf team gathered with family, friends and alumni at historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta Wednesday night to celebrate their second NCAA Division III national championship, their 10th and final SCAC championship, and the various individual awards that they received during last season's historic run to the school's second national championship in four years.
The evening was filled with accounts from Oglethorpe golf alumni about their time at Oglethorpe and how it relates to the players from the 2011-12 team and their accomplishments. The evening started with Kevin Henderson, the first golfer in Oglethorpe history, and Rob Rawson, a member of the first SCAC championship golf team in school history with Henderson, gave out the individual certificates to the team for their SCAC championship. Four-time SCAC champion golfers Chris Summers and Robert Miller gave out the awards to last year's SCAC All-Conference players Eric Quinn, Hayden Jones and Anthony Maccaglia. Former SCAC All-Academic honoree Corey Garner gave out the same award to Patrick Cansfield, Kentaro Toyota and Matt Rebitch. Current Oglethorpe junior Anthony Amodeo gave out the SCAC Freshman of the Year award to his teammate Anthony Maccaglia. Former SCAC Player of the Year Taylor Urbanski gave the award to his counterpart, last year's SCAC Player of the Year Eric Quinn. Former Oglethorpe golfer and current Mill Creek High School golf coach Ben Haynes presented Oglethorpe coach Jim Owen with his SCAC Coach of the Year award. Then to top off the SCAC portion of the evening, Matt Rebitch and Jordan Hall, the seniors on last year's Oglethorpe team, presented the program's 10th and final SCAC championship trophy to Athletic Director Becky Hall.
Former OU golfer Robert Fink, the school's first men's golf All-South Region honoree, continued the evening by presenting the plaques for the same honor to Anthony Maccaglia and Eric Quinn. He continued by presenting Coach Owen with his South Region Coach of the Year award.
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The evening wound down with the Petrels' national plaudits. Garner came back to present Rebitch with his national All-Academic award. Former Petrel golfer Scott Pugh, who earned All-America honors during his time at Oglethorpe, presented the same honor to Maccaglia and Hayden Jones. Maccaglia received three pieces of individual national hardware: his Arnold Palmer National Medalist award as the individual national champion, the Phil Mickelson Freshman of the Year award, and the certificate for his inclusion in the All-Nicklaus Team. Former OU freshman sensation Joe Green presented him with the Mickelson award and Owen gave him the other two. Former Oglethorpe golfer and assistant coach Mike Deckert presented Owen with his Dave Williams National Coach of the Year award. The awards section of the event concluded with University President Larry Schall and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Norm Findley presented the 11 members of the team with their national championship rings. The team then presented Schall with the school's second-ever national championship trophy.
Oglethorpe assistant coach David Potts closed the evening closed the evening by urging this year's team to strive to get back to this position next year. "Coach Owen started the evening by saying that it had been 938 days since we were here celebrating our first national championship. I've got another number to close the evening tonight: 365!"
