Rachel Brown has been promoted to head women’s golf coach at Thomas More while Chris Eilerman has been elevated to full-time status as head coach for men’s and women’s tennis.
Brown spent the 2014-15 academic year as Thomas More’s assistant women’s golf coach under head coach Drew Cooper. A 2013 graduate of Northern Kentucky University, Brown was a four-year letter winner for the Norse and was the team’s No. 1 golfer her last three seasons. When she graduated, she ranked sixth in program history in career scoring average, fourth in rounds played, fourth in counting scores and fifth in birdies.
Brown was a two-time regional qualifier and made the NKU All-Academic Team in 2013.
With the largest roster in the program’s history, the 2014-15 women’s golf team was a landmark season. Coming into the season, the team had never carded a lower score than a competing team after finishing an 18-hole round. This changed on Sept. 4, 2014 when the Saints beat out Spalding University for fifth place at Centre College’s Jim English Invitational while breaking the 400 mark for the first time in team play history.
Two weeks later, Thomas More defeated Mount St. Joseph University in a dual match by a score of 413-425.
The most improved team in the President’s Athletic Conference (PAC), the Saints went from a last place finish in the conference tournament during the 2013-14 season (587 strokes out of first place), to a fourth place finish in the conference tournament (198 strokes out of first place) during the 2014-15 season. This included a second place finish during the first of the four round tournament. Freshman Shanna Doumont, sophomores Emilie Mattei and Katelyn Beatrice were all named the All-PAC Team.
Eilerman will enter his third season as the women’s coach and second as the men’s coach during the 2015-16 academic year.
A Thomas More alum, Eilerman earned his undergraduate degree in Accounting with an Associate’s degree in Business in 1995. As a four-year starter for the Saints tennis team, he earned First Team All-Conference designation all four years, in addition to being a two time Most Valuable Player and team captain. During his college career, he earned three conference singles and four conference doubles titles culminating with his induction into the Thomas More Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012.
In two seasons as the women’s coach, Eilerman has guided the Saints to an 11-15 record and has grown the squad roster, while finishing seventh at the PAC Championship. In his first season as the men’s coach, he led the team to a 7-8 record and a 4-3 record against PAC opponents.
The team finished fifth at the PAC Championship and junior Sergio Pascual finished third at No. 1 singles.
Thomas More will field 21 varsity intercollegiate teams during the 2015-16 academic years.
From TMC Athletics