Now in his eighth season at the helm of Virginia Commonwealth’s golf program, Matt Ball has taken the Rams to new heights during his tenure as head coach.

In Ball’s first three years, VCU captured three consecutive Colonial Athletic Association team championships (2000, 2001, 2002) and advanced to the NCAA Regionals in each of those seasons, while also winning seven team tournaments and having four players receive medalist honors at events. Two of his pupils, Reg Millage (2000) and Ted Brown (2003), also qualified individually for the NCAA National Championship tournament, the only golfers in school history to accomplish such a feat.

Ball’s 2002 Rams extended the nation’s second-longest conference title streak when VCU shattered a CAA Championships record with a 21-under par total of 843 to garner its eighth straight league crown. The Rams continued their amazing run at the 2002 NCAA East Regionals in Roswell, Ga. with a fifth-place overall performance, which put VCU in the 30-team field at the NCAA National Championships for the first time in the program’s history. The Rams finished ahead of five of the nation’s top 11 ranked teams at the East Regional event.

Ball, who took over the VCU program as the university’s first full-time golf coach in 1999, is a former Ram player as well. He graduated cum laude from VCU in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Ball also was named to the Golf Coaches Association of America’s Academic All-America team in 1987 and twice garnered medalist honors with the Rams.

A member of the Professional Golfers Association since 1990, Ball worked as a golf professional at The Lakes, The Country Club of Virginia and Richmond Country Club prior to becoming coach at VCU.

Another of Ball’s primary objectives with the Rams’ golf team is a strong involvement within the community. He and his players are active participants with the Richmond First Tee, part of a national program that increases children’s exposure to the game of golf by making the sport more affordable and accessible. The Rams work with area youth in a number of clinics designed to teach golf skills, etiquette as well as life skills. Ball also founded the Richmond Area Junior Interclub Championship tournament and coaches the First Tee team that went undefeated in winning the inaugural event in 2003.

In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Ball is the director of the Nike Myrtle Beach Christmas Golf Camp and serves as a television analyst for the telecast of the Crown Royal Open of Virginia. In 2001, he also released an instructional video entitled Step by Step Golf.

A native of Fredericksburg, Va., Ball currently resides in Richmond with his wife of 16 years, Kim, and their two sons, Matthew, 13 and Adam, 10. Both boys are also competitive golfers, with Matthew winning the Virginia State Golf Association Junior Championship for the 10 and 11-year old division in 2003.