The fall semester at a university brings with it many opportunities, as new and returning students and faculty arrive on campus to start fresh and bring in the new school year.
At Salisbury University, one of those new opportunities involved a new sports team that made its debut during the fall sports season.
The golf team experienced its first season at Salisbury University, beginning in September and wrapping things up at the end of October. The golf team’s debut season was the next step in a multi-year process for the university that it hopes will culminate in competing at the highest level alongside the rest of SU’s athletic programs.
The idea for bringing a golf team to SU originated during former athletic director Gerry Dibartolo’s time at the helm of the athletic department, and the process continued under new athletic director Monica Polizzi. The first steps involved finding the head coach that would lead men’s and women’s golf teams at SU. In October of 2023, the university decided that that person would be Dalton Deardorff.
Deardorff first reached out to Salisbury about starting a golf program in 2017 when he moved to the Eastern Shore, and was informed that it was something they were already looking into. And when the announcement came in 2023 that they were officially starting a team, Deardorff knew he wanted to put his name into consideration.
“I have to throw my hat in the mix,” Deardorff said. “Who knows if I’ll get it, but it’s always been a dream of mine to see it come to Salisbury. So when I saw it be announced, I had to throw my name in the mix. And through a rigorous interview process, I was blessed to be given the position and take it on.”
Golf has been a part of Deardorff’s life for 25 years as a player and coach, learning the game when he was young, and playing collegiately at Marywood University (Scranton, Penn.). And after being hired to lead SU’s golf team, it started an almost year-long process of putting in the foundations for the first season, from finding a home course, to finding the players that would make up the first rosters for the men’s and women’s teams.
“Lots of phone calls, lots of emails, lots of screen time, whether it’s on the phone or on emails,” Deardorff said. “Looking up different contacts for where we ended up playing at Green Hill [Country Club] as our home course. I was lucky enough to have relationships there already, I was a member at Green Hill from 2016 when I moved down here to 2020 … I did a lot but there were also a lot of people in the Salisbury community that were super eager to make this program succeed right from the jump.”
And when it came to fielding their first roster, different avenues allowed Deardorff and his staff to find the players that would represent the Sea Gulls on the golf course. Salisbury University already had a club golf team, which helped with finding a few players. One player used to play soccer, and switched to golf after an injury. And for some incoming freshman, they and their high school coaches reached out to the program individually in hopes of potentially playing at SU.
Emma Wivell, a junior, was one of the players that was on the club golf team and decided to pursue playing for SU’s new golf program. A friend of hers and one of her future teammates had decided to pursue playing for the new SU team, and when she found out that Wivell played for the club golf team at the school, she recommended that she reach out to Deardorff.
“I’m never going to not at least look at an opportunity, so I met up with Dalton and we had a great conversation,” Wivell said. “I really loved everything he had to say, and from that point on it was pretty easy for me to decide that I want to be apart of it.”
Freshman Parker Pruitt played golf throughout high school and wanted to play college golf. As a Maryland native, Salisbury was a school he was familiar with when he was deciding which school he wanted to attend, and when he heard they were debuting a new golf team, he jumped at the opportunity to attend the school and try to play for the team.
“Salisbury was always a school close to me. I lived in Maryland so I knew a lot about Salisbury,” Pruitt said. “Then I heard they were making a golf team, and it kind of just clicked for me that ‘Wow, I should really tour.’ And when I came, I’d already been here a couple times, loved the school. And just meeting the coach really was the sell. I loved the coach, he’s a great guy.”
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Being part of Salisbury’s first golf team is something that the athletes and coaches take very seriously, and it’s also something that they take great pride in. Playing for a university whose Division III programs are known for success on a national level, they want to make sure that Salisbury golf one day reaches those same heights.
“It’s such an amazing opportunity, and I’m so grateful to be a part of this program. To literally be the first ever women’s golf team at the university I go to,” Wivell said. “It’s something I carry with a lot of pride. I hope that everywhere we’re going, whether it’s tournaments, practices, we’re making great impressions and building that respect for the program.”
And the fact that they are the first golf team at the school also fosters a sense of community and closeness, as they support each other into unknown terrain.
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“We’re very close,” Pruitt said. “There’s hardly a team I’m not with someone from the golf team. We walk 18 holes together, that’s four hours of us just talking about our golf game.”
When it comes to results on the golf course, the players and coach Deardorff were encouraged by what they saw in their first season. As preparations begin for their spring season in 2025, they look to build on what they started this season, searching for their first wins as a program. The golf program believes the sky is the limit, given their core group of young players and room for improvement. And long term, the plan is for the golf teams to continue climbing the ranks of Division III competition, and become another successful athletic program that represents Salisbury University.
“We knocked at the door a couple times individually on the men’s side, of winning a tournament,” Deardorff said. “I think for a couple of our guys, that’s the goal, to cross off a first collegiate win on their résumé. And most of these guys are true freshmen; so that’s very exciting, too. I’ve got them for four years.”
