The fall semester at a university brings with it many opportunities, as new and returning students and faculty arrive on campus to start fresh and bring in the new school year.
At Salisbury University, one of those new opportunities involved a new sports team that made its debut during the fall sports season.
The golf team experienced its first season at Salisbury University, beginning in September and wrapping things up at the end of October. The golf team’s debut season was the next step in a multi-year process for the university that it hopes will culminate in competing at the highest level alongside the rest of SU’s athletic programs.
The idea for bringing a golf team to SU originated during former athletic director Gerry Dibartolo’s time at the helm of the athletic department, and the process continued under new athletic director Monica Polizzi. The first steps involved finding the head coach that would lead men’s and women’s golf teams at SU. In October of 2023, the university decided that that person would be Dalton Deardorff.
Salisbury University’s Head Golf Coach Dalton Deardorff (right) during the fall 2024 season. (Photo: Courtesy Salisbury University athletics.)
Deardorff first reached out to Salisbury about starting a golf program in 2017 when he moved to the Eastern Shore, and was informed that it was something they were already looking into. And when the announcement came in 2023 that they were officially starting a team, Deardorff knew he wanted to put his name into consideration.
“I have to throw my hat in the mix,” Deardorff said. “Who knows if I’ll get it, but it’s always been a dream of mine to see it come to Salisbury. So when I saw it be announced, I had to throw my name in the mix. And through a rigorous interview process, I was blessed to be given the position and take it on.”
Golf has been a part of Deardorff’s life for 25 years as a player and coach, learning the game when he was young, and playing collegiately at Marywood University (Scranton, Penn.). And after being hired to lead SU’s golf team, it started an almost year-long process of putting in the foundations for the first season, from finding a home course, to finding the players that would make up the first rosters for the men’s and women’s teams.
“Lots of phone calls, lots of emails, lots of screen time, whether it’s on the phone or on emails,” Deardorff said. “Looking up different contacts for where we ended up playing at Green…
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