In his third decade as the head men’s golf coach at UDM,
Mark Engel has built Detroit into an annual Horizon League championship contender and the proof is in the best place possible – in the Titans’ trophy case.
The 2013-14 season marked his 24th at the helm of the Titans, a program that has been the league’s most consistent and dominant team over the last 17 seasons. Detroit has won six championships, while also coming in second four times and third on two other occasions marking 12 times in the past 17 years that UDM has placed in the top three at the conference showdown.
The Titans captured Coach Engel’s first conference title in 1999, then followed in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007 and most recently in 2010. They earned an automatic NCAA bid each of those latter five years advancing to the West Regional three times, and twice to the Central Regional, including in May of 2010.
Engel – who was given the title of Director of Golf after launching the successful UDM women’s golf program in 2004 – was voted conference Coach of the Year by his fellow coaches in 1992, 1999, 2007 and again in 2010, when Detroit scored a six-stroke victory at the Horizon League Championship. All told, the Titans have won 23 tournaments and produced 19 individual medalists during his tenure.
Coach Engel continually hits the recruiting trails hard and has brought a highly-decorated cast of players to the Titan roster over the years, including the initial Michigan All-State "Super Team" members and first nationally-ranked Canadian juniors in UDM history. One of his recent protégés, Mark Sommerfeld, was selected to the 2008 Canadian National Amateur Team. Another, Luke LaFave, returned to UDM and his old team in 2009 as an assistant men’s golf coach.
A third, David Byrne, was the 2010 Horizon League Player of the Year, and after graduating as a four-time member of the Detroit Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, he won the Golf Channel’s reality television show, Big Break Indian Wells. He then became the first Titan to play on the PGA Tour in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April of 2012 and is now on the Canadian Tour. The latest is 2013 graduate and All-Horizon League performer Simon Reyers, who has already won a few times on the Mandarin Tour.
A team that succeeds on and off the course, 29 Titans have been recognized on the conference’s Academic All-League Team as well as 11 GCAA All-American Scholars, three of whom received the honor in 2010. His team consistently ranks among UDM’s highest in grade point average and has received All-Academic Team (3.0 or better GPA) recognition by the GCAA for four-straight years, including the President's Special Recognition (3.5 or better GPA) in 2009 and 2010.
The Titan men’s golf team claimed the Horizon League “Raise Your Sights” Award in 2012 – the third time in four years - with a cumulative GPA of 3.258. The Horizon League “Raise Your Sights” Award is awarded for having the highest men’s team GPA of all the Horizon-League sponsored sports at the school. The program also claimed the Athletic Department’s Team Excellence Award for having the highest grade point average (3.61) among all of UDM’s varsity teams in 2010.
On the links, Engel has coached 19 medalists – including two that have won the Horizon League Championship - 31 All-Conference golfers, 19 All-HL Tournament honorees, nine Horizon League Newcomers of the Year and a pair of HL Players of the Year, who have garnered the award on four occasions.
Coach Engel’s former players are writing success stories for themselves in all walks of life, everywhere from professional golf to law and dentistry. One recent Titan, 2002 senior Adam Walicki, gained tremendous notoriety locally shortly after graduation by reaching match play at the U.S. Amateur Championship, hosted at nearby Oakland Hills. In 2003, Walicki also won the Golf Association of Michigan Championship, and he turned pro in 2005 before embarking on a career in investment consulting. He was a member of The Titan Sports Hall of Fame’s 2010 induction class.
During the 1996-97 school year, coach Engel’s Titans were one of just eight Division I teams to receive a Preview Grant. The prestigious grant, given jointly by Golfweek and Karsten Manufacturing, was made that year to schools that showed "a dedicated interest in building its golf program into one that will contend for a spot in the NCAA Championship finals in the future."
"To get to the NCAA’s with our league’s automatic bid is something we think we can compete for every season. I don’t think we’ll ever have a year where it isn’t one of our team goals," Engel said. "We’ve been to the NCAA’s four times and we’ve played well at a ton of other events, so we’re backing that up. We’re way past the ‘One Hit Wonder’ stage. I’m very proud of that."
The Titans’ assistant coach for four years before assuming the head coaching reins in September of 1990, Engel recently retired as UDM’s Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information in August of 2010. While in that latter role, he was the Titan Athletic Department’s link to the local and national media and oversaw all press relations and publications. He served as Media Coordinator when UDM hosted three NCAA Men’s Basketball Midwest Regionals as well as the 2009 Final Four. All told, this is his 28th year at the University. He received the 2005 Kathy Best Award – which recognizes the "quality and tireless work performed by Detroit-area media professionals in sports-related public and media relations" – from the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association, and received a 25-Year Award from the College Sports Information Directors of America in 2010 for his longevity in the profession and contributions.
He is a member of the Horizon League Sporting Conduct and Golf Coaches Committees. He also serves as a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame Election Committee.
Coach Engel is a product of the famed S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where he shared play-by-play duties of campus sporting events with NBC’s Bob Costas during their college days. Over the years, Engel has covered many professional and amateur golf tournaments for Associated Press and has staffed such major events as the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Women’s Open. Additionally, he worked in media relations for the PGA of America at the 2004 Ryder Cup. Over the years, coach Engel has also spent some of his spare time involved in the local youth roller hockey community, and served as manager of Team Michigan ’89 at the inaugural State Wars Championships in 2005.
A native of Baltimore, MD, Engel and his wife Jan are the proud parents of three sons – Dave, a graduate of UDM’s College of Engineering and Science, and twins Steve and Brian, hockey players themselves and two of the Detroit Red Wings’ biggest fans who earned their degrees from UDM’s College of Business Administration in 2010.
Coach Engel’s Accomplishments | 6 - Horizon League Championships | 4 - Horizon League Coach of the Year Honors |
| 5 - NCAA Regionals | 23 - Tournament Championships |
| 19 - Medalists | 31 - All-Conference Honorees |
| 4 - Horizon League Players of the Year | 9 - Horizon League Newcomers of the Year |
| 11 - All-America Scholars | 29 - Horizon League Academic All-League |
Titan Wins Under Coach Engel | 1993 Motor City Invitational | 2005 Horizon League Championship |
| 1994 Sandhills Collegiate | 2006 IPFW Fall Classic |
| 1994 Motor City Invitational | 2007 Horizon League Championship |
| 1997 Oakland Invitational | 2007 DePaul John Dallio Memorial |
| 1999 MCC Championship | 2007 IPFW Fall Classic |
| 1999 Kangaroo’s Colonial Classic | 2008 Fort Lauderdale Spring Classic |
| 1999 Wright State Invitational | 2008 Detroit Titans Invitational |
| 2000 Ohio Collegiate Classic | 2010 Horizon League Championship |
| 2001 MCC Championship | 2011 PGA Village Invitational |
| 2002 RMU/Duquesne Invitational | 2011 Detroit Titans Invitational |
| 2002 Horizon League Championship | 2013 Detroit Titans Invitational |
| 2005 Joe Cole Invitational | |
