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Mike Akers enters his fourth season as the women's golf coach at Texas State University after highly successful campaigns his first three seasons in San Marcos.
The 2008-09 season proved to be another highly successful season as the Bobcats won three tournaments and had one of its best finishes in school history with a runner-up showing at the 2008 Challenge at Wolfdancer, which included a field of six Big 12 Conference teams and four teams from the Big 10 Conference. Throughout the season, Texas State defeated six Big 12 teams and placed eight members on the All-Southland Conference Academic Team.
Akers created The Challenge at Wolfdancer tournament in 2007 and it has quickly evolved into one of the top intercollegiate fall tournaments in the country. The first two tournaments have been played at Wolfdancer Golf Club at the Hyatt Lost Pines resort near Austin.
Akers has led the Bobcats to highly successful campaigns his first two seasons at San Marcos. In May 2007, Texas State's recruiting class was ranked among the nation's Top Five by The Golf Channel. The class quickly made an impact as Texas State captured the University of Nebraska Invitational with five freshmen in the lineup. After the first tournament of the 2007-08 campaign, Texas State finished the season with a total six Top-5 finishes and the five freshmen were ranked as the nation's best class by Golfstat.com.
Texas State also capped off the regular season winning the 2008 Southland Conference Championship tournament and qualified to play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
The Bobcats also jumped an astounding 100 spots in the national rankings in twelve months time, moving from 148th in Oct. 2006 to 48th in Oct. 2007.
Those achievements resulted in Akers being named the 2008 Southland Conference Coach of the Year.
In addition, Akers has created one of the top intercollegiate tournaments in the country with the formation of the Challenge at Wolfdancer. The first two tournaments have been played at Wolfdancer Golf Club at the Hyatt Lost Pines resort near Austin.
Akers came to Texas State in September 2006 after serving as an assistant coach for both the men's and women's golf programs at the University of Central Florida.
Prior to his stop at UCF, Akers spent one season as a volunteer assistant for the women's program at Middle Tennessee. Akers was also the associate head coach at his alma mater, Fort Hays State in Kansas for eight seasons. There he helped to elevate the program to the top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Akers also served as head PGA professional at Hays' Smoky Hill Country Club, where he was responsible for the club's daily golf operations management. He is also the course-record holder at Smoky Hill, having fired a nine-under 62 on the par-71 course.
Additionally, Akers served as the assistant professional at Rio Pinar Country Club in Orlando, Fla., where for two years he assisted with the day-to-day operations of the private club.
He is the founder and co-owner of Precision Valley Golf Center in Kansas, a full-service golf training site that includes indoor and outdoor hitting areas as well as a pro shop.
In 2001 Akers produced and co-authored a golf instructional CD-ROM entitled "Build Your Dream Swing."The interactive CD covers the seven components of the full swing.
Akers earned his bachelor's degree in exercise science from FHSU, where he was a member of the Tiger men's golf team. He recorded three tournament victories during his collegiate career in Hays.
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