She's home.
For AJ Newell, the University of South Florida's freshly minted women's golf head coach, everything about her new job springs from that fortuitous fact.
The natural enthusiasm she has for the game, the passion she has developed for teaching young players and the competitiveness she displays while building something meaningful, it has all been enhanced now that Newell has returned to her hometown.
"It means everything to me,'' said Newell, 31, who grew up in Tampa and largely taught herself how to play at the par-3 Countryway Golf Club, near Town 'N Country. "No one knows how amazing Tampa Bay is better than I do. I have a tremendous source of pride being from the Tampa Bay area and I look forward to sharing that with our up-and-coming recruits. We'll be recruiting heavily, hopefully from the state of Florida, to keep our top talent here at home."
"I look forward to really building on my sense of pride here. Coaching at home is something enormously special. And with that comes this sense of pressure that I put on myself. I think it's a really good thing. It makes me so excited to get to work here and to build something that I'm going to be very proud of while hopefully providing the best experience that we can for our student-athletes.''
Newell, an All-State performer at St. Petersburg Northside Christian and an All-American at Tennessee, played professionally for five seasons until she was halted by a back injury that required surgery.
She served as a golf professional at Pelican Golf Club before getting the call from Jan Dowling, the former Tennessee assistant, who had been hired as Michigan's head coach. Newell took to college coaching quickly, helping the Wolverines to the program's first Big Ten Conference championship (2022).
When Newell learned in May that Erika Brennan was leaving USF to take the job at Georgia, she moved quickly to display her interest in returning home. To her eternal happiness, the timing was perfect, and she was hired. Newell's husband, Dan, a St. Petersburg native, said he enjoyed the adventure at Michigan, but shares the enthusiasm for thriving in Tampa Bay.
"AJ Newell is the perfect fit for our women's golf program,'' USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said. "She has been successful at all levels of playing and coaching. She's a hometown product. She has done everything with hard work and integrity, so she will certainly be a great role model for our student-athletes.''
Alexandra Jane Newell said she was initially attracted to golf because it was a meaningful way to spend time with her father, Jon, a former track and field athlete at Tennessee who once held the school record in the shot put. They still compete against each other, although Newell joked that her father is the one who gets strokes these days.
"How many sports are there where as a young girl you can go out and play with your dad?'' Newell said. "There's not many of them. That's the amazing thing about golf and that's what made me absolutely fall in love with it and not even for the competitive side of it."
"I want women and girls to learn how to play this game, so they can go out and play with their dads. They can go out and play with their kids one day. That's what really got a hold of me. I'm a competitor, so once I started playing tournaments, I fell in love with that aspect as well.''
Newell inherits a USF program that is coming off two consecutive NCAA Regional appearances to cap Brennan's seven seasons. In the small world of women's college golf, Brennan was a Tennessee assistant when Newell played for the Volunteers.
"We've maintained a very good relationship and Erika called me to say congratulations,'' Newell said. "She was thrilled for me, just like I'm thrilled for her and her family right now. She did an amazing job using the resources here at South Florida to build her program and I look forward to carrying that on."
"I think we've got some work to do right now with our roster. We've got to bring in some players and rebuild a little bit. But we're looking to carry that momentum forward, which is so important in recruiting, and we look forward to a wonderful 2024 class coming in this fall.''
During her Friday introduction, Newell was asked what would make for a successful USF women's golfer.
She boiled it down to one word — grit.
"They've got to have grit,'' Newell said. "This is one of the hardest sports you can ever play. You're out there for 18 holes — sometimes 36 in the college format — and you're out there by yourself most of the time. You'll see your coach just a couple of times (on the course). You've got to be tough to get through those hard moments out there. For me, I need to see someone with some grit. We want to bring in people who have a high bar for what is acceptable, who want to work hard, have grit and just show up every day to fight for the Bulls.''
The building process has begun. Like Newell said, there is work to be done. But it will be accomplished with passion, purpose, and joy. And there's one thing that makes it all extra special.
She's home.
