When Brad Fleetwood joined the Jacksonville State golf program in 2007, he brought with him a history of success in the game of golf and has used that to help continue the success the Gamecocks have grown to expect on the course and in the classroom.
Fleetwood came to JSU from his alma mater, Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., after a playing and coaching career that spanned seven years and saw him produce championship results in both capacities. He carried that success over to the Jacksonville State program, where he has coached conference championship teams on both the men’s and women’s sides.
After joining the Gamecocks for the 2007-08 academic season, JSU had immediate success. The women claimed the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Regional, thanks to a team that featured OVC Player of the Year Mercedes Huarte.
Both the Gamecock men’s and women’s teams have been consistently in the top of the OVC during Fleetwood’s tenure, one that has seen both squads finish out of the top three in the OVC Tournament just once. He has coached 16 All-OVC players on the women’s side and 12 on the men’s in his four years with JSU.
After a pair of third-place finishes on the men’s side, the Gamecocks finished atop the OVC in 2011, advancing to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2007. JSU had four of the five members of the All-OVC First Team, including the league’s Freshman of the Year Matthew Wallace. Fleetwood also earned a trip to the 2009 NCAA Men’s Regional with Gonzalo Berlin, who qualified as an individual after winning medalist honors at the OVC Tournament.
Wallace was the sixth Gamecock to win one of the OVC’s yearly awards since Fleetwood’s arrival. Huarte and 2008 Freshman of the Year Laura Cutler started the honors in 2008, followed by 2009 Freshman of the Year accolades from Hunter Hawkins and Lucia Fernandez Valdez. Portia Abbott was the OVC’s Player of the Year in 2009.
Before coming to JSU, Fleetwood was an assistant on three-straight Lone Star Conference men’s titles and one on the women’s side at Northeastern State. In his three-year stint with the Riverhawks, his men’s teams advanced to the NCAA Division II Regionals all three times, while the women made two appearances in the regionals. The women’s team advanced to the NCAA Division II National Championship in 2007.
Overall, his coaching career has seen five All-Americans and 11 Academic All-Americans, as well as nine conference players of the year.
Fleetwood was a four-year letterwinner at NSU from 2001-04 and was team captain in 2001-02. He earned All-Lone Star Conference honors on the course, while grabbing Lone Star Conference All-Scholar Team recognition in three seasons. In his senior season, the Riverhawks claimed the NCAA Division II South Central Regional title and finished seventh in the NCAA National Championship.
Fleetwood graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from NSU in 2005 and earned his master’s in health and kinesiology from there in 2007.
A native of Duncan, Okla., Fleetwood is married to the former Abby Tincher, who is an exercise science and physical education instructor at JSU.
