Josey Stender
	Position: Head Coach/Asst. Director Wyoming Golf Experience: Seventh Year at UW College Degree: Memphis '01

Josey Stender enters her seventh year with the University of Wyoming Cowgirl golf program. Stender is the head coach of the Cowgirls, and also has been the assistant director of Wyoming golf since 2005.

The Cowgirl program has grown in leaps and bounds on the course during Stender's tenure and has continued its tradition of success in the academic realm. The Cowgirls also picked up their first team win in 10 years at the Bronco Fall Invitational in 2009.

Stender's list of achievements while directing the Cowgirls include setting school records for individual low round and event score, as well as team all-time marks for team low round and 54-hole event total. In the past four years, the Cowgirls have rewritten the low team round mark 10 times. Much of the success comes from Stender's coaching philosophy, which exemplifies her competitive spirit.

"I value that they have a great college experience on and off the course," she said of her athletes. "I look for well-rounded student-athletes who are willing to work hard to accomplish their goals."

UW had a top-five individual finish at the 2006 Mountain West Conference Championship, while 20 Cowgirls have been named Academic All-MWC and eight have been awarded All-American Scholar honors during Stender's tenure.

The coach takes pride in the efforts of her athletes while at UW, which include the accomplishments of both current and former golfers. Stender coached former Cowgirl Jonelle Martinez, who was one of the most accomplished athletes the UW golf program had seen in some time. Martinez won the individual MWC conference title in 2009 and was named to the First Team All-Conference squad as well, carrying a 77.78 stroke average throughout the year.

2011 graduate Molly Black also has benefited from the tutelage of Stender, posting the all-time low round of 68(-4) in the 2009 Ptarmigan/Ram Fall Classic. She worked her way to the lowest round average in the fall 2010 season, averaging 77 strokes per 18 holes.

Stender also overcame another huge obstacle in Cowgirl history, beating BYU at the MWC Conference Championships in the spring of 2010. It was the first time in MWC history that the Cowgirls were able to beat the Cougars in the conference event. At the 2011 MWC tournament, the Cowgirls posted their lowest score ever under Stender with a 910 (+46).

Stender came to UW from Boise, Idaho, where she had been the communications director for the Idaho Golf Association. A collegiate golfer at the University of Memphis from 1998-2003, she served as a graduate assistant intern in the fall of 2003. Formerly Josey Edwards, she married Jeff Stender on Aug. 20, 2005. Josey and Jeff, an assistant principal at Laramie Junior High, have a son named Griffin, born in July 2008, and twins Jovee and Porter, born in March 2010.

The Wyoming's men's and women's golf programs were restructured in 2005, as Joe Jensen was elevated from his position of head men's coach and was named director of both the UW men's and women's programs. Jensen remains the Cowboy head coach and oversees all aspects of Wyoming's golf teams, while Stender primarily works with the UW women's squad but also serves as the assistant director under Jensen. As the assistant director, Stender is involved in multiple aspects of Wyoming golf, including outreach, recruiting, practice, putting together the home events hosted by both teams and scheduling with both squads.

"She's always striving to get better," Jensen said. "We're trying to compete on a national level. I think that's our expectation and she's on board with that. She just does an amazing job.

"It's how she connects with the players and her honesty. It's her coaching style. She doesn't say too much, but she says enough. Our players are very fortunate. She just has a great way of adapting to the players and the players trust her."

Stender earned her bachelor's degree in education, with an emphasis on sports and leisure studies/sports management from Memphis in 2001, and then earned her Master's of Science in sports and leisure commerce from Memphis in 2004. An accomplished student, she received numerous academic honors during her playing career, including being named to the National Golf Coaches Association All-Scholar Athlete team three times; 1999-2000, 2001-02 and 2002-03.

Stender, originally is from Idaho, and there, had a successful amateur golf career.

She won three state high school titles and earned the 1999 Idaho Women's Amateur Championship, as well as being named the Rocky Mountain PGA Female Amateur Golfer of the Year that same year. She was a member of the USGA Idaho State Team in 2003, and was a participant at the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in 2004. Stender was runner-up in the 2001 Pacific Northwest Golf Association Women's Amateur Championship.

She currently is an apprentice for the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Division.