Building on a Rich Tradition
An Impromptu to Return to FSC Has New Head Coach Brian Richey Working Toward Championships
PHOTOS BY ALLIE BRINTON, JACK PORTUNE, AND JORDAN RANDALL
As Colton Swartz stepped up to strike a birdie putt at the NCAA Division II South/Southeast Regional following a severe weather delay, first-year—and interim at that point—head coach Brian Richey’s stomach was churning.
The Moccasins needed a top seven finish to qualify for the National Championship tournament, and after several strong days at Mission Inn Resort & Club FSC golfers were playing “about as bad as we possibly could” on day three, according to the 39-year-old FSC alum. They were locked into a sudden death playoff with the final spot on the line.
Nonetheless, Swartz, who had a historically memorable season as a sophomore in which he earned Sunshine State Conference Golfer of the Year honors, holed about a 10-footer to defeat USC Aiken and advance to nationals, an achievement that has become an expectation for a Mocs program that has 13 national titles and five runner-up finishes.
“It was a really special moment,” recalls Swartz, a rising junior from Fleming Island, Fla. “It was a lot of pressure, but it was a moment that made us better as individuals and as a group, and I think that was big for us.”
It was a culture defining moment in a season that included the men securing the program’s first Sunshine State Conference championship in 15 seasons and that saw the Mocs come up just short in the match play quarterfinals against No. 3 North Georgia at National Championships and take fourth overall in the country in the stroke play finals.
“You know, it’s wild. I think it’s a little bit of ‘pinch me.’ The kids deserve all the credit because I got conference Coach of the Year and I was there for four months?”
For Richey, who played golf for FSC for five seasons before graduating in 2009, it was one of dozens of moments he is now taking time to reflect back on from a memorable and whirlwind season that set lofty expectations for next season that include aiming for the program’s first national championship in nine years.
Richey played professionally on the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA’s developmental tour, from 2015 to 2022 and notched four top 10 finishes as he chased his dream of playing at the sport’s highest level. Not bad at all for someone who didn’t pick up the sport until about middle school and who humbled himself to the realities of the sport with hundreds of rounds at Cleveland Heights Golf Course where his favorite holes are 6A and 7 because as he puts it, “you can just bomb it there.”
Richey went all in to see how far he could take golf in 2018 when he moved to Ponte Vedra to train more intensely and become a member of TPC Sawgrass. He kept grinding and competing, and even this January he was still dabbling with “What if…” scenarios, but his life looks much different now as a father to two children with his wife, Meghan (also an FSC alum) who he married in 2021.
He had remained close with a number of his FSC golf teammates over the years, including Lee White. As he was hanging with some friends and family watching the College Football Playoff National Championship game he received a message from White, who at the time was the head coach for FSC men’s golf.
“I called him and that’s when he told me [he was stepping down as the head coach] and I was like, ‘You’re doing what?’ just because of the [hard work he had put into coaching the team and] getting the new building, and I had no knowledge of it all,” he says. “He has just had a kid and he told me he had an opportunity that he had to take for his family, and I was like, ‘You know, l’m doing the same thing right now.’ He said he would pitch my name [to Athletic Director Drew Howard]...and that’s when I talked to Drew.’”
On February 3, FSC named Richey the interim coach. One week later the spring season commenced.
“It was two weeks before our first spring tournament…it wasn’t a mess, but it was chaos for sure,” says Swartz about the impromptu meeting with Howard and White when the former coach announced he was leaving. “I decided to stay and stick it out and see what the year brings…and you know, coach [Richey] is a big reason I stuck it out this year, so I’m looking forward to what we can do next season.”
The first tournament under Richey’s direction was a homecoming of sorts, as the Mocs finished second out of 15 teams in the Matlock Collegiate Classic at Lone Palm and followed that up with a 3rd place finish at the Saint Leo Invitational. The season had its share of ups and downs results wise, but the Mocs led the entire way through the three-round Sunshine State Conference tournament to capture the conference crown. Swartz earned conference Golfer of the Year honors and Richey was awarded Sunshine State Coach of the Year—a trophy he jokes that’s not really his because he was coaching athletes recruited and trained by his good friend.
“You know, it’s wild. I think it’s a little bit of ‘pinch me.’ The kids deserve all the credit because I got conference Coach of the Year and I was there for four months?” he says with a smile, as he looks out onto the Lone Palm course in his new office in the state-of-the-art Lone Palm Golf Clubhouse that officially opened in May. “Drew said in one of the staff meetings [after the season]…Brian, you’re making it real hard to post that job.”
The job never hit the open market, and on June 5 Richey officially had the interim tag dropped.
“Brian not only understands the prominence of our program but lived it as a player. He was instrumental in driving this team back to the NCAA Quarterfinals this past May, and we are excited to have him continue the rich tradition of our program,” Howard said in a press release.
Lee White’s impact on the program will continue to be felt, especially in the upcoming season as three incoming recruits he secured join Richey’s squad.
One of those, Jack VanderSchurr—who finished Top 50 at the 2024 Florida Class 2A state championships—said White was a phenomenal recruiter, but he’s excited to build on how his new coach and the squad finished last season.
“He’s a great guy with a professional [golf] background, which I think is valuable, and I’m excited because I think we’re going to have a good squad,” VanderSchurr says.
One area Richey is admittedly facing a learning curve is recruiting and understanding the nuances of a collegiate athletics landscape that involves the transfer portal and name, image, and likeness (NIL) money and contracts that can be offered to athletes. He decided to stay put with the recruiting class White brought in for the 2025-26 season, in part because he believes he has the team needed to compete for a national championship, and in part so he can develop his philosophy and gameplan of building and sustaining a competitive team.
Richey and his golfers seem in lock step on the fact that if the players hit their individual goals next season then collectively the team should also reach the promised land it envisions.
Swartz knocked nearly three strokes per round off his average from his freshman season to sophomore season, and he’s been competing a lot this summer in preparation for what he expects to be an even more successful campaign.
“It was just more believing in myself and telling myself I can compete with these guys, and last year I still didn’t know some of the courses so I was relying on the coach and older guys to help me out with where to hit certain shots,” he says. “With the experience I got last year I feel like now I can be a helping hand for the freshman coming in, you know?”
Until the first tee time is announced for the fall season, Swartz and his teammates will be putting in work at Lone Palm as well as the new clubhouse on site that includes two high-end golf simulators, a weight room and dynamic putting green.
A Championship Clubhouse to Match the Tradition
In May, FSC held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new addition to the Moccasins athletics portfolio, Lone Palm Golf Clubhouse.
The 4,000-square foot facility provides a Championship lobby, which displays all 33 titles earned between the men's and women's golf programs, pro-style locker rooms, offices for each coach, two Trackman hitting simulators, a putt view studio, fitness and rehabilitation area, meeting space and a student-athlete lounge.
The facility was designed by John Curtis, CMHM Architects, and built by Register Construction and Engineering of Lakeland.