Men's golf coach a guest on Sirius/XM radio show
Eastern Florida State College golf coach Jamie Howell was a guest on the Sirius/XM PGA of America Radio show on Wednesday afternoon.
Howell, who is beginning his 18th season as the coach of the Titans, was recently awarded the 2019 Labron Harris Sr. by the Golf Coaches Association of America in cooperation with The PGA of America and was on the show to talk about the program and the award.
"Labron Harris Sr. pretty much set the bar for college coaches," Howell said on the show. "For the most part he established early that this is the way to run a program, the way to cultivate players and the way to go out and recruit them. You take a look at his track record, national tournaments, All-Americans. He blazed a trail that few can touch."
The Harris Award is presented to the college or high school coach and Class A PGA Professional whose support of the game through teaching, coaching and involvement in the community has helped ensure the continued growth of the game of golf and who represents the finest qualities the game has to offer.
Howell talked about his father who actually played in a tournament with Labron Harris Jr. and that Harris Jr. reached out to him last week to congratulate him.
"I am the son of a PGA member, dad started out in a little golf club in Ohio and wanted to play more and made to the tour and played from 1959 to 1964. He had a little bit of luck in '64, he won the Quad Cities Open, it was rain-shortened event, but they still had a winner and there was a five-player playoff and dad was in it and so was Labron Harris Jr. and low and behold dad came out on top after a couple holes," Howell said.
Howell also talked about the program and his philosophy, which has totaled 48 tournament wins and 27 All-Americans, with three players winning NJCAA individual national titles in his 17 seasons.
He was inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2019 and has been named the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year in 2015 and was a finalist for the award in 2016. He has been the District Coach of the Year eight times in his career.
The Titans have reached the NJCAA National Tournament in all 17 of Howell's seasons finishing as high second place, and third place twice. His 2006/2007 team was the Florida Community College Activities Association Male Academic team of the year for the state of Florida. Howell also played professionally in the PGA European Tour from 1988-1990.
The Titans open the spring season Feb. 3-4 with the Titan Winter Invitational.