{"id":251044,"date":"2026-04-15T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251044\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:34:11","slug":"vargas-named-finalist-for-strickland-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251044\/","title":{"rendered":"Vargas named finalist for Strickland Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORMAN, Okla.\u00a0\u2014 Texas Tech men’s golf associate head coach James Vargas<\/a> was named a finalist for the 2026 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award, the Golf Coaches Association of America announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Vargas is in his third season with the Red Raiders after being hired by head coach Greg Sands<\/a> on June 13, 2023.<\/p>\n

The Strickland Award, presented by TaylorMade Golf Company, is given annually to an assistant coach across NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and NJCAA who has excelled in working with student-athletes both on the course and in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Two assistant coaches \u2014 one from Division I and one from outside Division I \u2014 will be named winners next month. Joining Vargas among Division I finalists are Dustin Groves (Virginia), Noah Goldman (North Carolina), Jace Long (LSU) and Gustavo Morantes (Arkansas). Non-Division I finalists include Arrianna Custodio (Cal State East Bay), Troy Nielsen (Cal State San Bernardino) and David Rosenbaum (Meridian).<\/p>\n

Guided by three top-20 players in the Scoreboard rankings powered by Clipped, Texas Tech is currently ranked No. 8 and has recorded a victory at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational, along with seven additional top-five finishes this season. The Red Raiders set a tournament record at the Valspar Collegiate Invitational with a 45-under 807, defeating top-ranked Auburn by six strokes in a field that included three other top-10 teams.<\/p>\n

Since Vargas’ arrival, Texas Tech has made consecutive NCAA Championship appearances, including a 10th-place finish in 2025. The program has also earned nine Cobalt Golf All-America Scholar selections, four PING All-Central Region honors and two PING All-America honors during that span.<\/p>\n

TaylorMade Golf Company has sponsored the Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award since its inception in 2003.

\n\u00a0

\nPrevious Division-I Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award Winners

\n2025 – Thomas Sutton, Arizona State

\n2024 – Chris Williams, Auburn

\n2023 – Dudley Hart, Florida

\n2022 – Matt Clark, North Carolina

\n2021 – Bill Allcorn, Oklahoma

\n2020 – Jean-Paul Hebert, Texas

\n2019 – Armen Kirakossian, Arizona State

\n2018 – Corey Maggard, Auburn

\n2017 – Ryan Blagg, Baylor

\n2016 – Andrew DiBitetto, North Carolina

\n2015 – John Handrigan, Florida

\n2014 – Chris Hill, Houston

\n2013 – Ryan Murphy, Texas

\n2012 – Jim Anderson, Texas A&M

\n2011 – Christian Newton, Georgia Tech

\n2010 – Michael Burcin, South Carolina

\n2009 – Brian Sharp, Virginia Tech

\n2008 – Walter Chun, California

\n2007 – Andy Bischel, UNLV

\n2006 – John Knauer, Arizona

\n2005 – Greg Robertson, Purdue

\n2004 – Bowen Sargent, Tennessee

\n2003 – Mike McGraw, Oklahoma State<\/p>\n

\u2014 TECH \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORMAN, Okla.\u00a0\u2014 Texas Tech men’s golf associate head coach James Vargas was named a finalist for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-251044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}