Longtime Cal Head Coach Earns Perseverance Award For 2nd Time
BERKELEY – California women’s golf head coach Nancy McDaniel has been named the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) Division I Kim Moore Spirit Award for the second time, it was announced Friday.
The annual award honors and recognizes a student-athlete or coach who exemplifies a great spirit toward the game of golf, a positive attitude on and off the golf course, is a role model for her team and showcases mental toughness in facing challenges.
Last summer, McDaniel found herself in a second battle with cancer, resulting in a leave of absence just before the start of the 2023-24 school year. She continued to lead the Golden Bears to one of their best seasons in recent memory, as they set numerous program records on the way to their 23rd NCAA Regional appearance in 25 years.
In October, the Stanford Invitational was sponsored by the Play4Her initiative in McDaniel’s honor. The initiative raised over $280,000, with all the proceeds going towards the research of McDaniel’s oncologist Dr. Hope Rugo at University of California, San Francisco, Breast Cancer Center.
This year’s Pac-12 Championships were also dedicated to McDaniel, who has continued to raise awareness for breast cancer research since initially being diagnosed in 2015. The annual “Teach for a Cure Day” event – which she began in 2017 – raised over $50,000 for the Breast Cancer Research fund.
McDaniel was also named the Kim Moore Spirit Award winner in 2018. The award is dedicated to Kim Moore, who became an inspiration for the physical challenges she persevered through while playing golf at the University of Indianapolis from 1999-03.
“I feel honored to be given the Kim Moore Spirit Award as Kim is such an incredible young woman and has shown such strength and resilience on her path,” McDaniel said. “She is an example of such strong and optimistic spirit with her, ‘If you want something, no matter what, you can get it’ mentality.”
After spending the last 29 seasons as Cal women’s golf’s founding head coach, McDaniel – a two-time Pac-10 and West Regional Coach of the Year who led the Bears to three top-5 NCAA Championship finishes – announced her retirement on Apr. 18. A week later, she was one of eight Bears named to the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
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