Eastern Michigan Athletics
Brewer Named Golfweek National Coach of the Year
6/11/2026 12:00:00 PM | Women's Golf
Second-year head coach guided the Eagles to the most historic season in team history
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – Josh Brewer, who recently completed his second season as the head coach of the Eastern Michigan University women's golf program, has been named Golfweek's 2026 Women's National Coach of the Year, the publication announced today, June 11. The national award is the first earned by Brewer in his 14-year head coaching career and the first in the history of the EMU program and comes on the heels of the Eagles' historic run at the NCAA Championships that saw the team advance to match play and finish tied for third nationally two years removed from ranking 226th nationally.
"I am actually speechless," Brewer said upon hearing about his selection for the award. "It feels great for our program to be recognized as we have come so far in the past two years. This is truly a team award, though. It started with the vision of (Vice President/Director of Athletics) Scott Wetherbee, (Executive Senior Association Athletic Director and General Manager for Golf) Dan McLean and everyone at GameAbove to trust me with running their program. Credit also goes to these young women who believed in our vision and executed throughout this entire year. I also want to thank Golfweek for their support of college golf and women's golf. Again, this is an amazing honor!"
The national award is the second time this season Brewer has been recognized for his accomplishments as the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) named him the 2025-26 WGCA East Region Coach of the Year and placed him on its watch list for the national award. All told, the accolades earned stand as the only coaching honors attained in the history of the Eastern program.
The 2025-26 season opened with Brewer's team winning back-to-back titles by capturing victories at The Southern (Sept. 8-9) and the Leadership & Golf Invitational (Sept. 15-16) before adding its third win of the campaign with a victory at the Silicon Valley Showcase (March 30-31). The win at The Southern marked the first team win for Eastern since April 16-17, 2022, when the Eagles captured the Lady Jaguar Invitational. Additionally, the team was not the only victors in each of the three events as individual medalist honors were earned by Janae Leovao (Oceanside, Calif./El Camino/Long Beach State) in the first two events and Baiyok Sukterm (Bang Yi, Thailand/Panitchayakan Rajdamnern Tech/Lindsey Wilson) in the third. Together, the wins marked the first team Eastern has won three team titles in the same season since the 2011-12 campaign and the first time since the 2007-08 season when three medalist honors were claimed.
From there, Brewer guided the Eagles to a runner-up finish at the 2026 Mid-American Conference Championships, the program's best finish since taking second in 2015, as Eastern continued to climb the national rankings, peaking at No. 19. With the conference event completed, Eastern was ranked No. 27 and earned an at-large selection into the NCAA Regionals for the first time in program history. Seeded fifth in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional, the Eagles placed fourth as a team to earn their first trip to the NCAA Championships where the magical run unfolded.
Seeded 21st in the 30-team tournament at the Omni La Costa Resort, Eastern battled its way up the standings and sat 10th following the third round to make the 15-team cut to accomplish one of Brewer's goals for the tournament, have "a tee time on Monday". In the fourth round, Eastern shot 4-under 284 to post the lowest round of the day and jumped to fifth place in the standings to finish in the top eight and earn a spot in match play. In match play, the Eagles stunned fourth-ranked University of Texas in the quarterfinals before falling in the semifinals to top-ranked and eventual champion Stanford University to earn a tie for third place nationally, which completed a climb up the rankings of 223 positions.
Individually, Brewer worked with four players that finished the season ranked among the top 100 nationally, including Janae Leovao, who capped her career at No. 46 in the standings and was twice named an All-American, including a WGCA All-America Honorable Mention and a Golfweek All-American Third Team selection. Additionally, Sukterm finished at No. 53, Savannah de Bock (Ecaussinnes-d'enghien, Belgium/Institut de l'Enfant-Jésus-Lycée/Georgia) was No. 86, and Jasmine Leovao (Oceanside, Calif./El Camino/Long Beach State) was No. 90.
Statistically, the Eagles have shredded the program record book under Brewer with the 2025-26 season producing major rewrites. Prior to Brewer's arrival, the program shot 290 or lower in a single round just five times before the Eagles posted 36 such rounds in the past two seasons, including 26 this past season. Additionally, Eastern had finished a 54-hole tournament at 880 or lower just once ahead of Brewer's arrival and reached that mark 13 times since, including all 11 54-hole tournaments played in 2025-26.
Golfweek has presented a national coach of the year award since 1999 (except for the COVID-shortened 2020 season) with this year marking the 27th time the award has been presented. Brewer is the second MAC coach to earn the award after Mike Morrow of Kent State University was honored in 2001 while becoming the fourth non-"Power 4" coach to be recognized, following Laurie Gibbs of Pepperdine University (2005 and 2023), Dana Dormann of San Jose State University (2022), and Morrow. Additionally, Brewer is just the fourth coach of a Midwest program to earn the accolade and the first since Therese Hession of Ohio State University in 2014. Devon Brouse of Purdue University and Morrow of Kent State were the other two honorees in 2010 and 2001, respectively.
All-Time Golfweek Women's National Coach of the Year
2026 • Josh Brewer, Eastern Michigan
2025 • Anne Walker, Stanford
2024 • Alicia Um Holmes, UCLA
2023 • Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
2022 • Dana Dormann, San Jose State
2021 • Kory Henkes, Ole Miss
2020 • None (COVID)
2019 • Dan Brooks, Duke
2018 • Andrea Gaston, USC
2017 • Missy Farr-Kaye, Arizona State
2016 • Mary Lou Mulflur, Washington
2015 • Mary Lou Mulflur, Washington
2014 • Therese Hession, Ohio State
2013 • Andrea Gaston, USC
2012 • Mic Potter, Alabama
2011 • Carrie Forsyth, UCLA
2010 • Devon Brouse, Purdue
2009 • Melissa Luellen, Arizona State
2008 • Andrea Gaston, USC
2007 • Dan Brooks, Duke
2006 • Devon Brouse, Purdue
2005 • Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
2004 • Martha Freitag, Vanderbilt
2003 • Nancy McDaniel, California
2002 • Dan Brooks, Duke
2001 • Mike Morrow, Kent State
2000 • Todd McCorkle, Arizona
1999 • Dan Brooks, Duke
"I am actually speechless," Brewer said upon hearing about his selection for the award. "It feels great for our program to be recognized as we have come so far in the past two years. This is truly a team award, though. It started with the vision of (Vice President/Director of Athletics) Scott Wetherbee, (Executive Senior Association Athletic Director and General Manager for Golf) Dan McLean and everyone at GameAbove to trust me with running their program. Credit also goes to these young women who believed in our vision and executed throughout this entire year. I also want to thank Golfweek for their support of college golf and women's golf. Again, this is an amazing honor!"
The national award is the second time this season Brewer has been recognized for his accomplishments as the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) named him the 2025-26 WGCA East Region Coach of the Year and placed him on its watch list for the national award. All told, the accolades earned stand as the only coaching honors attained in the history of the Eastern program.
The 2025-26 season opened with Brewer's team winning back-to-back titles by capturing victories at The Southern (Sept. 8-9) and the Leadership & Golf Invitational (Sept. 15-16) before adding its third win of the campaign with a victory at the Silicon Valley Showcase (March 30-31). The win at The Southern marked the first team win for Eastern since April 16-17, 2022, when the Eagles captured the Lady Jaguar Invitational. Additionally, the team was not the only victors in each of the three events as individual medalist honors were earned by Janae Leovao (Oceanside, Calif./El Camino/Long Beach State) in the first two events and Baiyok Sukterm (Bang Yi, Thailand/Panitchayakan Rajdamnern Tech/Lindsey Wilson) in the third. Together, the wins marked the first team Eastern has won three team titles in the same season since the 2011-12 campaign and the first time since the 2007-08 season when three medalist honors were claimed.
From there, Brewer guided the Eagles to a runner-up finish at the 2026 Mid-American Conference Championships, the program's best finish since taking second in 2015, as Eastern continued to climb the national rankings, peaking at No. 19. With the conference event completed, Eastern was ranked No. 27 and earned an at-large selection into the NCAA Regionals for the first time in program history. Seeded fifth in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional, the Eagles placed fourth as a team to earn their first trip to the NCAA Championships where the magical run unfolded.
Seeded 21st in the 30-team tournament at the Omni La Costa Resort, Eastern battled its way up the standings and sat 10th following the third round to make the 15-team cut to accomplish one of Brewer's goals for the tournament, have "a tee time on Monday". In the fourth round, Eastern shot 4-under 284 to post the lowest round of the day and jumped to fifth place in the standings to finish in the top eight and earn a spot in match play. In match play, the Eagles stunned fourth-ranked University of Texas in the quarterfinals before falling in the semifinals to top-ranked and eventual champion Stanford University to earn a tie for third place nationally, which completed a climb up the rankings of 223 positions.
Individually, Brewer worked with four players that finished the season ranked among the top 100 nationally, including Janae Leovao, who capped her career at No. 46 in the standings and was twice named an All-American, including a WGCA All-America Honorable Mention and a Golfweek All-American Third Team selection. Additionally, Sukterm finished at No. 53, Savannah de Bock (Ecaussinnes-d'enghien, Belgium/Institut de l'Enfant-Jésus-Lycée/Georgia) was No. 86, and Jasmine Leovao (Oceanside, Calif./El Camino/Long Beach State) was No. 90.
Statistically, the Eagles have shredded the program record book under Brewer with the 2025-26 season producing major rewrites. Prior to Brewer's arrival, the program shot 290 or lower in a single round just five times before the Eagles posted 36 such rounds in the past two seasons, including 26 this past season. Additionally, Eastern had finished a 54-hole tournament at 880 or lower just once ahead of Brewer's arrival and reached that mark 13 times since, including all 11 54-hole tournaments played in 2025-26.
Golfweek has presented a national coach of the year award since 1999 (except for the COVID-shortened 2020 season) with this year marking the 27th time the award has been presented. Brewer is the second MAC coach to earn the award after Mike Morrow of Kent State University was honored in 2001 while becoming the fourth non-"Power 4" coach to be recognized, following Laurie Gibbs of Pepperdine University (2005 and 2023), Dana Dormann of San Jose State University (2022), and Morrow. Additionally, Brewer is just the fourth coach of a Midwest program to earn the accolade and the first since Therese Hession of Ohio State University in 2014. Devon Brouse of Purdue University and Morrow of Kent State were the other two honorees in 2010 and 2001, respectively.
All-Time Golfweek Women's National Coach of the Year
2026 • Josh Brewer, Eastern Michigan
2025 • Anne Walker, Stanford
2024 • Alicia Um Holmes, UCLA
2023 • Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
2022 • Dana Dormann, San Jose State
2021 • Kory Henkes, Ole Miss
2020 • None (COVID)
2019 • Dan Brooks, Duke
2018 • Andrea Gaston, USC
2017 • Missy Farr-Kaye, Arizona State
2016 • Mary Lou Mulflur, Washington
2015 • Mary Lou Mulflur, Washington
2014 • Therese Hession, Ohio State
2013 • Andrea Gaston, USC
2012 • Mic Potter, Alabama
2011 • Carrie Forsyth, UCLA
2010 • Devon Brouse, Purdue
2009 • Melissa Luellen, Arizona State
2008 • Andrea Gaston, USC
2007 • Dan Brooks, Duke
2006 • Devon Brouse, Purdue
2005 • Laurie Gibbs, Pepperdine
2004 • Martha Freitag, Vanderbilt
2003 • Nancy McDaniel, California
2002 • Dan Brooks, Duke
2001 • Mike Morrow, Kent State
2000 • Todd McCorkle, Arizona
1999 • Dan Brooks, Duke
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Golf
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