Burckley Hired to Guide MSU Billings Golf Teams (Oct. 29, 2003)

BILLINGS, MT – Dr. Gary Gray, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for MSU Billings, announced today that Roger Burckley has been hired as the school’s new men’s and women’s golf coach.  Burckley replaces Dave Doherty, who resigned earlier this fall, and will begin immediately.

“We’re very excited to have Roger join our staff,” said Dr. Gray.  “He’s young and has a lot of energy that he is willing to devote to growing Yellowjacket golf into a competitive Division II program.  With men’s and women’s golf becoming official conference sponsored sports beginning in 2004-2005, now is an opportune time for someone with Roger’s talents to really move forward with this program.”

A 1995 graduate of Park High School in Livingston where he was a two-time all-state selection, Burckley played college golf at Palm Beach Atlantic College, an NAIA school in Florida, and at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.  He played two years at Rocky Mountain, where he graduated in 2001 with a degree in business management.  Burckley was a two-time captain for the Bears and earned all-conference honors both years.

In his final semester at Rocky, Burckley assisted with the men’s golf program.  After graduating, he worked for two years at Yellowstone Country Club as an Assistant Golf Professional and is currently working at Mitchell Golf in Billings in sales and fitting.  Burckley plans to continue working for Mitchell Golf while coaching the Yellowjackets.

MSU Billings started men’s and women’s NCAA II golf programs in 2002-2003 and the Yellowjackets are beginning their second full year of competition.  With the NCAA fall season mostly wrapped up around the country, Burckley says he plans to focus on scheduling for the spring championship season and filling out his remaining roster positions.

“This program, as the only NCAA school in the state with both men’s and women’s golf, has unlimited potential,” said Burckley.  “We have a lot of Montana talent on the team that I’m excited to see compete against the top teams from the West.  We’re going to schedule seven events for the spring and I think we’ll have a good schedule.  I’m excited to get started because we’re going to have a team that will represent Montana regionally and nationally and I’m looking forward to building a program that will compete nationally.”