Paying It Forward – California Golden Bears Athletics

This feature originally appeared in the 2024 Fall edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.
 
Sofie Aagaard and Michael Wilson helped lead the California women’s and men’s golf programs to tremendous heights as student-athletes two decades ago.
 
Now, fueled by the same competitive drive that made them flourish as golfers, the two alumni are back in Blue and Gold as their respective programs’ head coaches, and tasked with leading the Golden Bears into a new era as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
 
“There’s a pursuit of excellence built into the walls at Cal,” Aagaard said. “There’s an expectation that you’re here to be great. It’s an energizing feeling.”
 
Different paths led Aagaard ’06 and Wilson ’07 back to Berkeley within a two-month span of one another this summer – Aagaard was hired on June 6, Wilson on July 22 – following successful stints as collegiate head coaches elsewhere along the West Coast. But a mutual respect for Cal’s unique student-athlete experience was always shared by the pair, and proved to be a driving force behind the return to their alma mater.
 
Aagaard and Wilson first crossed paths as members of the women’s and men’s teams, respectively, during an overlapping three-year span between 2003-06 in which both were quickly identified as leaders by their former coaches and Cal Athletics Hall of Famers — Nancy McDaniel and Steve Desimone. Aagaard, a three-time All-American, helped lead the Cal women to three consecutive top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships, while Wilson, the 2003 Pac-10 Conference Co-Freshman of the Year, played a key role on the Cal men’s 2004 NCAA championship squad, won three individual tournament titles and was a three-time All-America Scholar.
 
Cal golfers would often flock to Richmond Country Club on off days to get in extra work around the putting greens during those years, and it was there that Wilson took notice of Aagaard’s commitment to the game.
 
“So many of the faces I’d see at Richmond on our free days,…