UGA fires Kelley Hester as women’s golf coach
ATHENS – Georgia women’s golf coach Kelley Hester has been dismissed by athletic director Greg McGarity.
Hester
Hester, 38, said she met with McGarity on Thursday in Athens. An official announcement from UGA will come Friday afternoon.
“My contract was up and he didn’t renew it,” Hester said Friday morning. “He just said he didn’t have the confidence in me to lead the program in the direction he felt like it should go.”
Hester, who played for the Bulldogs from 1992-96, was the head coach at Arkansas for five years before accepting Georgia’s offer to return to her alma mater. Her first signee was Marta Silva Zamora of Spain, who became just the second four-time All-American in UGA history and was the 2011 National Player of the Year. Hester helped produce 11 All-Americans during in time in Athens. She signed Manuela Carbajo Re, the top-ranked junior in South America, earlier this year.
However, Georgia failed to advance out of regionals and on to the NCAA Championships in each of the last three seasons.
Hester is the second UGA coach to be dismissed by McGarity this year. Women’s gymnastics coach Jay Clark was forced to resign earlier this month after the Gymdogs failed to advance to the Super Six round of the NCAA Championships for a third consecutive year. Georgia hired Danna Durante as a replacement on May 23.
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70 comments Add your comment
jonkdawg
June 1st, 2012
8:55 pm
McGarity sure is the scary one, you don’t do it right your behind is gone and i believe he will be gone too..if he keeps changing coaches and never get it right hah!
KelleyFan
June 1st, 2012
10:06 pm
Re: kicking off one of the most talented members of the team. It wasn’t for a minor infraction. It was extremely serious and something that cannot be tolerated. Coach Kelley was absolutely correct in letting that player go.
Plus4am
June 1st, 2012
10:47 pm
Hester is not respected by any of the girls. That’s why she’s not recruiting instate girls. Nobody wants to come to UGa. Clemson starts a program and easily fills their team which by the way is better than the dawgs imediadiatly. She has no clue what the girls know about each other. She has put together a bunch of misfits which half are good players and the other half woundn’t play on a DII team. How could you expect good instate girls would want to play for that team or for that matter out of state ones. Let’s recruit out of the country which our tax dollars are paying the tuition. There are too many quality players in the state or the southeast just like football that we shouldn’t compete for a national championship each year. Let’s win second is for losers and not even making it to the championship is not acceptable.
Billy
June 2nd, 2012
7:03 am
KelleyFan, what makes a quality coach in your mind? 5 years at the helm and she finished 10th and 15 in the NCAA with the team she inherited then never even made the tournament again. Her #4 and #5 players could not consistently break 80 (sometimes 85). Other teams have completely made UGA irrelevant in the conference. What do you think Mr. McGarity should have done? Sign her to another contract? The right move was made. PLus4Am is correct, Clemson will be much better in their first year of a program than this team. It’s sad to see the great tradition of women’s golf at UGA (where top 10 Nationally was a bad year) now just trying to get in the NCAA Tournament.
Greatputter
June 2nd, 2012
7:37 am
Billy and Plus4,
The inherited team, had 4 people that left in the first year, how many recruits do you think were missed because those girls were taking scholorship. I think this was just a premature decision, let’s just see how the next coach prospers with the incoming recruits, then you can talk about her recruiting. Girls do want to come to Georgia, but sometimes they are not a good fit, not everyone can be accepted.
01HAWK
June 2nd, 2012
11:16 am
Finally………………………….UGA is thinking like BAMA does. If you do not produce…………..YOU ARE FIRED !!!!
01HAWK
June 2nd, 2012
11:19 am
PERNO, FOX, and CMR should not get to comfortable…………….McGarity is MAD.
1953dawg
June 2nd, 2012
9:19 pm
McGarity is a total joke. He only has the balls to fire minor women’s sports coaches. He also has no balls when it comes to firing coaches that have been at UGA too long, and their programs aren’t competitive anymore. Richt, Perno, Landers, and Fox should have all been replaced or fired, yet this spineless A.D. continues to reward these losers. Richt and his wonderful staff are going to lose the top 4 players in the state in recruiting for 2013, and 3 of them are rated 5 stars. That is totally unacceptable for any head coach, especially one that has been at the state’s top program for 11 years. Richt and his high school staff are a joke when it comes to recruiting and evaluating talent. Landers hasn’t won an SEC title in 20 years, yet he gets a free pass. He loses the top talent in state as does Richt, yet the A.D. turns his cheek. Fox is the worst recruiter of the 3 stooges. This guy is just like Richt, there were 3 big time recruits in Ga. this year that were rated in the top 50 players in the country, and Fox gets none of them. Tech even got one of them, but Fox doesn’t This guy is just like Richt, he can’t win a big game, he can’t coach on game day, and he can’t recruit. Hell with that resume’ Mcgarity will probably give him a five year extention. This clown will have his 3rd losing season this year, yet he is still at UGA. S.C. just fired it’s head coach for having a terrible season again in the SEC, but not UGA. Then you have Perno, who is the worst game day coach in the SEC, and he will have a losing season next year, with his top 2 pitchers gone, and he has no one to replace them, because he can’t recruit. But McGarity said his future was never in doubt because he has some personal issues with the health of his family. That is a classic excuse to not fire someone. Hell as long as a UGA coach has a family member that is in bad health, his job security will be fine. What a pitiful state the UGA athletic Dept.is in now. Most schools judge their coaches by their won lost records, not if they have a family member in bad health. UGA and McGarity are the laughing stock of the SEC now, and things want get any better until this clown is gone.
Derek
June 2nd, 2012
11:09 pm
One of the best golf coaches in the nation was fired by UGA? Unbelievable fire. Someone should be asking why.
Brown Dog
June 3rd, 2012
7:29 am
Not all employees are treated in the same way, true, but McGarity has already sent a signal to Mark Richt. Extension, sure, but no raise and a salary based far more on performance incentives. Both sides know that the next two years are key. Georgia must win big this year, and it must not drop like a rock in 2013 when the strength of the team disappears just as the schedule begins to toughen.
tenn.DAWG
June 3rd, 2012
8:28 am
I’m thinking Perno should make it to Omaha and Mr. Resting on my Tenure Landers should make it to the Sweet Sixteen to feel safe.
Andy Landers
June 3rd, 2012
11:24 am
Greg has assured me I can stay as long as I want, and I have earned that right.
Derek
June 3rd, 2012
9:36 pm
I like Greg Mc but he needs to explain this…unimaginable, unbelievable, untenable, unusal. This does not pass the smell test. Why would he do such a thing to a great coach? WHY?
bart
June 3rd, 2012
10:50 pm
I think next year is a make it or break it season for Perno. My guess is Landers will get maybe a couple of years, but he has to produce. Derek, how can she be one of the best coaches when her teams did not reach the NCAA Championships for the last 3 years? McGarity is sending a message to all the coaches, mediocrity is no longer accepted. Produce or else. More power to him. Go Greg!
Kudzu in Right Field
June 4th, 2012
10:56 am
How many of the Perno haters even go to the games? I’m a season ticket holder and I like Perno.Check the record. NO other coach in UGA history has taken us to Omaha more than Perno.What UGA needs is better fans and ,yes, I’m an alumnus. We lead the SEC in empty seats and whining. We rarely sold out Foley Field in ‘08 when we were national runner-ups. Oh….I’m sorry. We have to win it all every year before UGA fans show up.
Girls BBall fan
June 4th, 2012
11:59 am
What has Andy landers done this decade to deserve a couple more years?
GAWHO
June 4th, 2012
10:00 pm
Tell Garity to get some balls and FIRE ANDY LANDERS! This guy is a joke of a coach and he cant keep the best players in Georgia to attend UGA! Not renewing the golf coach’s contract is SOFT! AS a high school girls basketball coach who is interested in Women’s Basketball, G Tech’s program is much better than UGA’s and Landers is living off his past when he had superior talent. If his team does not advance to the sweet 16 this year, he should be fired!
Derek
June 4th, 2012
10:02 pm
Did you read the recent column that said Bobo is on the short list for Head Coach at several schools. Football experts seem to see something in Bobo that many UGA fans are missing. We have a confused group of fans around here. I hope we can keep Bobo and Richt.
north georgia fan
June 5th, 2012
3:36 pm
agree it will be a make or break year for the Diamond Dawgs next year
Clawed Dawggs
June 7th, 2012
1:22 pm
Sad to see an alum get shown the door. Under the new regime, apparently only top of the heap is good enough. That’s OK for the big revenue sports, but for golf? Not really a real team sport. And this lady seemed like a great recruiter.
I’m really uneasy about the direction we’re going in. Not just UGA, but all the other SEC teams. Just “show me the money” is really what its about. Of course the players won’t get paid.
I’m liking Richt, Perno and Fox. But I think the new regime wants win at all costs.