Bluefield College Athletics issued the following announcement on Jan. 7
Steve Lilly looks forward to serving as Bluefield University head men and women's golf coach. Lilly took the helm on Jan. 1, 2022, when B.J. Bauer retired after serving more than a decade leading the BU program.
"I am very flattered and really excited about being the head golf coach at Bluefield University. As I told Tonia Walker (BU Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics), B.J. Bauer (former BU head golf coach, and Dr. Olive (BU President), I have had a very good business career over the last 40 years or so but I view this as my dream job and I am really fired up and excited about helping young people play golf well, and perform in the classroom, and also to help develop them for a lifetime," Lilly said.
Lilly comes to BU after four decades in the banking industry. Born in Roanoke, Virginia and raised in Boone County, West Virginia, he is a graduate of Scott High School and Western Carolina University where he was on the golf team. He possesses graduate degrees from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Delaware. The past 23 years Lilly was Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of First Community Bankshares. In those roles he was responsible for daily operations of the $3.1 billion financial services company with 700 employees. Lilly retired from FCB in 2020 to follow his lifelong dream of being a PGA instructor and coach.
Lilly takes over a men's program that is established and will implement the women's program in the future.
"The players that are returning for the spring and the next competition year form a very strong nucleus for our team. The other thing that is very impressive about this group is they hold the highest GPA of any of the golf program in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. Not only are they good athletes they are very good students. That makes my job a lot easier to perform when you have high academic performers," Lilly said.
Asked what obstacles he faces in his new position, Lilly had a one-word response, recruiting.
"Recruiting is always the largest challenge. For the men's program, being able to attract high academic performers and good golfing talent, that's a very special combination that a lot of people are after, so selling the university to these players and selling them the virtues of the program and the school itself are always a challenge because there is always a lot of competition out there for those type of players," Lilly said.
"Also, we are beginning our women's program and there too recruiting is a challenge. It's a good type of challenge. The demand for collegiate women golfers is very high and the supply is very low, at least here in the continental United States. There may be some opportunity there to bring in some players from foreign countries to the school. Sizing it up coming into a well established program, the two main things that I have got to do are recruit quality men players, and quality women players."
Looking ahead Lilly looks to sustain the high academic performance of the team and in competition climb the ladder of the AAC. "We are in the last one-third of the conference as far as performance on the golf course. I would like to see us improve that position and hopefully be in the top one-third and pushing the high performing golf teams in the conference. I think we can do that if we focus on all the right things we need to do to be competitive. We have the talent, we just need to develop it."
Active in the Blue Ridge Junior Golf Tour for years, Lilly got his start as a youth, going to the golf course with his father, an insurance agent who decided playing golf would help his business. The elder Lilly bought a set of golf clubs and played golf in the evenings after work. His mother insisted that Mr. Lilly take Steve with him.
"At five years old I would go with my dad, and he would play by himself because he was not very good, and I asked him, 'Daddy, can I hit a golf ball?' So I took this golf club that was longer than I was tall and I started swiping at it, and I hit it, and I hit it in the air and it was very exciting. From that point forward I played golf," Lilly said.
Original source can be found here.
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