UNF Athletic Director Lee Moon announced the addition of division 1 women’s golf. UNF now has 18 varsity sports in the athletic program. Moon believes this is the perfect time to add women’s golf because of the success and attention the men’s program is receiving.

The new golf program will kick off for the 2012-2013 season, and the search for a head coach will begin in the spring of 2011. The year 2011 will host the programs recruiting, scheduling and player development.

UNF golfer Sean Dale qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship.

Dale finished second in the qualifier at Sawgrass Country Club July 26 and July 2 7 with a two-day total 140 and shooting a 68 on the last day.

Dale, an upcoming junior at UNF, was the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year and won the tournament at the 93rd Annual Florida State Amateur Championship. This will be his first appearance at the U.S. Amateur.

Dale ultimately chose to attend the University of Mississippi after high school in Jacksonville, wherein his freshman year, he earned All-Freshman SEC honors. In April 2009, he decided to come back to his hometown and transfer to UNF his sophomore year.

J.C. Horne, a former UNF golfer, earned the first alternate spot behind Dale, while Joe Byun, Dale’s teammate, secured the second alternate position. Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. will host the 2010 U.S. Amateur Aug. 23-29.

Women’s volleyball struggled in their 2009 season, particularly in away games. They went 10-20 overall and 4-16 in conference play.

At home, the Ospreys won five of their 12 games, giving them a 5-7 record inside the UNF Arena. Away games, on the other hand, proved to be a tough feat for the team. With a 1-11 record in away games, head coach Kevin Campbell had decisions to make for the team. Basically, who stays and who goes.

The coach owns the right to decide if a player is producing the results the coach needs for the team to excel. If the player does not produce results for the team, then her scholarship could be lost, and he can cut her from the team.

“The team is allowed 12 full scholarships,” Athletic Director Lee Moon said. “The coach has to make tough decisions when transferring from non Division I, to Division I.”

There are many reasons why athletes can lose their scholarships. In this case, some players did lose their scholarships.

“There were individual issues with each of them,” Moon said.

UNF Athletics has been in the process of transitioning to division one for the past couple of years, and each sport is evolving.

“You have to recruit new players and that’s how you get better,” he said.

Some players that lost their scholarships include Julie Fye from Pennsylvania, Danielle Lerch and Kaley Read. Some girls who were not asked back to the team include Akaila Amara and Lizzy Mano. Nia Sanfeliz-Ramirez quit after the season was over.

A total of six girls did not receive their scholarships back, although they were never explained why, leaving six spots to fill. There are only six positions on the court at a time, meaning a drastic, unusual turnover number.

“They titled it coach’s decision,” Read said. “They never explained a reason, just that the program was going in a different direction, and the coach didn’t feel that we needed to be a part of the team anymore.”

Four new additions to the team may help their chances for the 2010 season. With the arrival of Anna Budinska, Kelsey Smith, Cameron McGuire and Britt Claessens, Campbell is excited to get to work.

Budinska is a 5-foot-9 outside hitter from Prague, Czech Republic. She played club ball for SK Kometa Praha for nine years. She also has extensive experience in beach volleyball, as well as track and field.

“Anna comes to us with a great depth of experience through her international club play,” Campbell said.

Smith is from Oregon, Wis. and specializes on defense. She stands 5-foot-5 and earned All-Conference Honorable Mention while helping Oregon High School to the regional semifinals her senior year. She also has experience in track and field.

“She is energetic and is an exciting defensive player. Kelsey will compete for playing time in that position as a freshman,” Campbell said.

The most recent to sign is the Vero Beach, Fla., standout Cameron McGuire. The 6-foot-1 outside hitter attended Saint Edwards High School where she set a school kill record with 797 for her career and 320 on her senior season campaign. Defensively, she had 397 digs for her high school career.

“Cameron is a very talented athlete, whose speed and jump ability will help our program move to the next level,” Campbell said.

Britt Claessens comes from Lake Mary, Fl., who was named the ESPN RISE Regional Athlete in her senior season at Lake Mary High School for the Southeast Girls region. “She will challenge girls for any position this season,” Campbell said.

“We are going to have a really competitive season, and we will be fun to watch with our fats offense,” Campbell said.

“We are definitely really excited,” said Knight’s founder and Executive Director Jeremy McDonald.

The Knights, who are a member of the Florida Football Alliance, are excited to continue to play their home games at Hodges Stadium because they feel that it is a good size for a team with their kind of fan base. Hodges Stadium seats close to 10,000 fans.

“To me the options are Hodges Stadium or Jacksonville Municipal Stadium,” said McDonald. “If we were selling out Hodges stadium and turning people away then yeah we would definitely want to go play at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Maybe years from now, that would be great if we could get to that point.”

While the Knights struggled in attendance for the first couple games last season due to bad weather, they improved at the end of the season and had around 1000 fans for each of the last two home games of the season. The Knights are hoping to improve off of those numbers with a year of exposure from playing on UNF’s campus.

The Knights are also hoping to build a larger fan base after the success they had in their first season last year. This is something that looks possible due to the spike in attendance later in the season. The Knights are coming off of a 10-3 season in which they won the NFC North and came just one win away from playing in the Alliance Bowl Championship.

The Knights are hoping to take their roster to next level and want to compete for championships in the season to come. They are holding Open Try Outs on Saturday, July 31, at Plantation Park in Julington Creek, Fla.

“Really we are looking for all positions,” said McDonald. “I can’t say there is one position that we’re just loaded at that we can’t use help. We definitely are in search of a franchise quarterback, as I think everybody always is. That is probably our single biggest need.”

For more information about the Jacksonville Knights visit www.jacksonvilleknights.org

Osprey pitcher, Clayton Schulz is currently in recovery at Shands Jacksonville hospital. He was in surgery for around five hours to repair cut tendons in his left foot. Schulz received over 400 stitches for his wounds.

Schulz and his family are staying positive. Schulz says he is feeling better with everyday that passes and feels lucky that it did not end up being as bad as it could have been.

“It did some damage,” said Schulz. “It’s going to take a little time but today is the best I have felt yet. I got up and walked on crutches today a little. So as soon as I can get going and start this rehab and start getting back I’m ready to go.”

Schulz, who has been surfing for a long time, said it all happened within a matter of seconds and never got a good look at the animal that attacked him. However according to Schulz, the doctors who performed his surgery, along with other people who have seen the wound, feel very strongly that it in fact was a shark that attacked him.

“I felt something grab my foot,” said Schulz. “All I really could feel was teeth. He shook his head a little bit and then I think it realized that I wasn’t really what he was looking for and luckily he let me go.”

Once the shark let go, Schulz paddled back to shore with the help of another surfer. While paddling in, he glanced back at his foot to realize that he had a pretty severe wound.

Once on shore, Schulz was met by lifeguards and his girlfriend, Megan Hudack, who was shocked and worried about what she saw when he came out of the water.

“I saw him ride a wave in on his stomach with his foot in the air,” said Hudack. “He just seemed really calm so I didn’t think anything was wrong. I saw a bunch of lifeguards running towards him so I ran up and I saw his foot and it was apparent that something powerful had got him.”

While lifeguards were working on Schulz’s foot, Hudack did the first thing she could think of and called his parents, who immediately got in the car and drove to Jacksonville from Jupiter, Fla.

“Obviously you know when you hear about a shark bite your immediate reaction is Jaws,” said Clayton’s dad Peter Schulz. “But we were pretty calm about it. You always wonder about it when there is big fish around, it’s a possibility.”

Schulz, who is a red-shirt sophomore pitcher for the Ospreys, came out of the bullpen for most of the 2010 season. He struck out 15 batters in the 30.2 innings he pitched throughout the 17 games in which he appeared in for the Ospreys while winning his only start of the season.

Schulz plans to start his rehab a soon as the doctors allow him and plans to be ready by the start of the 2011 baseball season.

“As soon as I can get going I’ll be working as hard as I can to get back,” said Schulz. “I’m excited to get back. I don’t see any problems why I shouldn’t be ready for baseball season. They said four weeks until I can start physical therapy and putting pressure on it so I’m hoping that I can just start going and go with it.”

Despite getting attacked, Schulz says that this will not keep him out of the water and while he admits that it might take some time, he does plan to surf again.

“I’m sure I’ll be back out,” said Schulz. “My neck will probably be turning a little bit looking around and stuff but I’m sure I’ll be back out there as soon as I can.”

“When we joined the Atlantic Sun Conference one of the stipulations was we were going to have to add women’s golf as a team sport at some point in time,” said Moon.

The women’s golf team is set to begin competing in the Atlantic Sun Conference in the 2012-13 season. Moon does not have anyone specific in mind to coach the team. However, he plans to start a national search for a coach next spring. He plans to have the coach in place for a year before the team starts competition.

“We have a lot of things we have to finalize before that happens,” said Moon. “Once we start advertising and see the level of interest, then we’ll know the pool of candidates. But we’ll plan on offering the job the next spring; let them be here for a year to be able to recruit. Then we’ll compete in 2012-13.”

The addition of the women’s golf team will bring UNF to 18 varsity sports sponsored by the University. Moon believes the success of UNF’s men’s golf team and the golf facilities UNF has to offer will help bring in strong recruits.

“Having a successful men’s program will allow us to recruit and build a successful women’s program,” said Moon. “The Hayt Center is a very good recruiting tool.”

While UNF is allowed six scholarships, Moon hopes he can stager the distribution of them to build a stronger team to start out with.

“It means a lot to always win your state amateurs,” Dale said. “Especially the Florida Am because it is one of the biggest. I would probably say that Texas and California are the ones up there with Florida. You got all the best players in Florida, so you know it is going to be a good field to go out and win that.”

Dale, who is entering his junior year at UNF, saved his best round of the tournament for last. He finished on Sunday with a 3-under-par 69. His good showing on Sunday helped him to turn in a 3-under-par 285 for the tournament.

After entering the final round down by two strokes, Dale bogeyed the par four first hole. After paring holes two and three, Dale made an eagle on the par five fourth hole when he holed out from a greenside bunker. The shot got him to 1-under-par and back in the hunt for the win.

“I hit it perfect,” Dale said. “It kind of jump started my round and got me back to 1-under and just got me some confidence from there on out for the rest of the round.”

Dale then birdied the par three seventh but turned in a bogey on the par four eighth hole to get to the turn at 1-under-par, with a 35.

Dale played his best golf of the tournament once he hit the back nine. He started off quick on holes 10 and 11 with birdies on both holes. Dale pared out the rest the round to win by three strokes on his way to grabbing his first Florida State Golf Association title.

“I like the accomplishment,” said UNF head golf coach Scott Schroeder. “I think it is one of those neat prestigious events growing up living in the state of Florida. If you look back over time, there are a lot of guys that have won that who are now playing on the PGA Tour.”

Dale’s win is just the most recent success from the UNF golf team members this summer. Freshman Kevin Phelan just finished playing in his first U.S. Open after winning the U.S. Open sectional tournament. In addition to Dale and Phelan’s offseason success, UNF golfers Joe Byun and Jacob Davidson will be alternates in a U.S. Public Links qualifier.

“Everybody seems to be doing good,” Dale said. “I think that just the way we finished out this past year has kind of just opened up everybody’s eyes. It has given us more confidence going forward. I mean we played in some big tournaments this past year in college, and I think that helped out a lot and made everybody else on the team more confident.”

Dale is the second Osprey to win the Florida State Amateur Championship in the past five years. He joins Jeff Dennis who won the tournament in 2006.

With all of the individual success coming from the UNF golfers this offseason, Schroeder is looking forward to seeing how it can help his team once the season comes around.

“It just shows that we have a lot of talent,” Schroeder said. “It just shows that we have a lot of depth and a lot of guys that just keep working hard and playing good golf. It keeps me excited and we’re looking forward to next year.”

“The first day, I was kind of inconsistent,” Phelan said. “Today the front nine wasn’t great, but the back nine I really played steady and hit a lot of good shots.”

Phelan, who teed off from the 10th tee, Friday morning, with the 24th group that consisted of professionals Jason Preeo and Mark Silvers, came in to Friday looking to regroup and wanted to enjoy the experience of playing in his first-ever U.S. Open.

“I just wanted to enjoy it and do my best,” Phelan said. “I tried not to think about what was going on and just play my game and play well.”

Phelan, who was playing in just his second round of U.S. Open golf, got off to a ruff start again on Friday. He was 3-over-par after just three holes and ended the front nine at 5-over-par with a 41.

The one, bright spot of the front nine for Phelan came on the par-5, 14th hole where Phelan was able to register his first birdie of the tournament. Phelan had earned a double bogey on that same hole on Thursday.

Phelan finally found his swing and was able to turn his game around in the back nine. Phelan birdied the par-3 fifth, and the par-5 sixth, on his way to finishing 1-under-par for the back nine to finish eight strokes better than Thursday with a 4-over-par 75 on the day.

The Pebble Beach Golf Links continued to live up to U.S. Open standards of being a very difficult course to play on.

“The fairways are really narrow,” Phelan said. “The greens were definitely the toughest part. It’s tough to hit the greens. You really only have about half the green to land the ball on.”

The improved second round brings Phelan to 16-over-par for the tournament with a 158. With the projected cut being around 8-over-par, it is unlikely that Phelan will advance to play on Saturday and Sunday.

However, despite not making the cut, Phelan enjoyed the opportunity to play with the world’s best golfers, on the world’s biggest stage.

“I really enjoyed it,” Phelan said. “I played some practice rounds with some really good players. I think playing with them was really good for me. I learned a lot. Also, I birdied two holes in a row today which was a lot of fun too.”

Playing in the U.S. Open was just the first step for Phelan, who will be entering his second year at the UNF. With all the success Phelan has had at such a young age, he plans to one day play on the PGA Tour as a professional golfer.

“That’s definitely my goal,” Phelan said. “I’d like to finish up college and just keep improving, so I will be good enough to turn pro when I finish.”

Phelan qualified for his first ever U.S. Open back on June 7, by finishing in a first place tie at the U.S. Open sectional tournament in Hope Sound, Fla.

Phelan started off from the first tee at 2:31 p.m., Pacific time, with the 49^thgroup which consisted of professionals, Jason Preeo and Mark Silvers, who finished 4-over-par and 11-over-par respectively.

Phelan started the day with two straight bogeys but was able to get out of the front nine at just 4-over-par with a 39. He started the back nine with his most consistent golf of the day with three straight pars on holes 10, 11, and 12.

However, Phelan struggled throughout the last six holes, paring only once while racking up two more bogeys and three double bogeys to finish with an 83.

The Pebble Beach Golf Links lived up to its tough reputation. Not one hole played under par on Monday. However, the course did manage to produce eight different holes that played over par on the day.

The difficulty of the course was not lost on Phelan, who only hit five out of 18 greens in regulation. He also struggled to find the fairway off the tee, hitting just eight fairways on the day.

Phelan currently sits 14 strokes behind leaders Shaun Micheel, Paul Casey, and Brendon De Jonge, who all shot a 2-under-par 69 on Monday. De Jonge produced one of the highlights of day one when he eagled the 14^th hole by hitting it in from outside 100 yards. The eagle was one of only two that Pebble Beach allowed on Monday.

Other notables from day one of the 110^th U.S. Open include the 2010 Players Championship winner, Tim Clark, who sits tied for 14^th at 1-over-par. Phelan’s favorite professional golfer, Padraig Harrington, is tied for 15^that 2-over-par. In addition, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are in the hunt at 3-over-par and 4-over-par respectively.

Phelan, who will look to regroup and make the cut Tuesday, will start off from the 10^th tee at 9:01 a.m., Pacific time, in the 24^thgroup that will include Silvers, and Preeo.