Josey Stender Position: Head Coach/Asst. Director Wyoming Golf Experience: 3rd yr College Degree: Memphis '01

The 2007-08 season is the third year with Josey Stender at the helm of the University of Wyoming women's golf program. She is the head Cowgirl coach and the assistant director of Wyoming Golf. She was hired on Aug. 18, 2005.

In Stender's first two years the Cowgirls have shown improvement on the course and maintained their long-standing tradition of success in the classroom. School records have been established for individual low round and event score, as well as team all-time UW marks for low round and 54-hole event total. UW had a top-five individual finish at the 2006 Mountain West Conference Championship, nine Cowgirls have been named Academic All-MWC and five have been awarded All-American Scholar honors during Stender's brief tenure.

Stender has been able to build the Cowgirl program around senior Laura Mengelkamp, who has ten top-five finishes in her career, has won an individual tournament title, is currently ranked in the top-10 in the MWC for stroke average and is the UW school record holder for low round and low event score.

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. 20th, 2005. Josey and Jeff, an elementary school teacher in Laramie, have two dogs, Penelope and Oscar.

"It has been a dream of mine to become a head coach," said Stender. "This opportunity at Wyoming was very appealing and a great fit for me. Wyoming is very similar to my home in Idaho, and I was impressed with the school and facilities during my visit.

"I'm excited to have a talented young team that I can grow with and build upon. The Mountain West Conference is one of the top golf conferences in the nation, which should be a good selling point for recruits and certainly was for me."

On June 1 of 2005, the Wyoming's men's and women's golf programs were restructured. 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 as Cowboy head coach and oversees all aspects of Wyoming's golf teams, while Stender functions primarily with the UW women's squad, also serving as the Assistant Director under Jensen. As the assistant director, Stender is very involved in multiple aspects of Wyoming Golf, including outreach, recruiting, practice and scheduling with both squads.

"I am thrilled to work with Josey," said Jensen. "She does a wonderful job working with me as a team. We are a good blend and together we are developing the Wyoming Golf brand. Josey is very talented, hard-working and we're lucky to have her here.

"She has many different duties as assistant director of this program and all our players are benefiting from her position. We are seeing improvements in many different areas of the UW programs. Josey is a great role model for our student-athletes because of her background as a successful student-athlete."

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.

The 27-year old Idaho native was a successful amateur golfer, winning three state high school titles, earning the 1999 Idaho Women's Amateur Championship, as well as being named the Rocky Mountain PGA Female Amateur Golfer of the Year in 1999. 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 has recently been named an apprentice for the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Division.