Jake Harrington Honored with NJCAA Coaches Legacy Award
CHARLOTTE –– New Mexico men’s golf head coach Jake Harrington has been honored by the National Junior College Athletic Association as one of the first honorees of the NJCAA Coaches Legacy Awards. The nearly 200 coaches to receive the award are being recognized as the all-time winningest coaches over the 90-year history of NJCAA.
Harrington, who began his coaching career at South Mountain Community College in Arizona from 2007-2013, was one of seven men’s golf coaches to be honored. All seven of the honorees won at least three NJCAA National Championships during their career.
In his six years coaching at his alma mater, Harrington led the Cougars to National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Championships in three of his last four seasons. He turned SMCC into a perennial power during his tenure with the Cougars, leading the program to NJCAA Division II National Championships in 2010, 2012 and 2013, as well as a runner-up finish in 2011. Competing in the NJCAA Region I and Arizona Community College Athletic Conference, the Cougars won four region titles and four conference championships among the 41 tournament victories in Harrington’s time as head coach. Harrington was a two-time recipient of the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year award (2010, 2012), a four-time winner of the ACCAC Coach of the Year honor (2009, 2011-13), and was named the GCAA Western United States Coach of the Year in each of his final six seasons (2008-13) at SMCC.
Harrington coached two Jack Nicklaus Award winners (National Player of the Year), three Phil Mickelson Award winners (National Freshman of the Year) among the 18 All-Americans he coached at South Mountain. He also coached 21 all-conference, 27 all-region players in addition to 10 Academic All-Americans.
Following his time at SMCC, Harrington coached at Little Rock for 10 years before coming to New Mexico in the summer of 2023. He took the Little Rock program to new heights, making three straight NCAA regional appearances from 2021-23, including advancing to the program’s first NCAA Championship finals in 2021. The Trojans won the 2022 Sun Belt Conference and 2023 Ohio Valley Conference titles, ending the 2021 and 2022 seasons ranked a school-record No. 43 nationally.
In his first season at New Mexico in 2023-24, Harrington was named Mountain West Coach of the Year and led the Lobos to the NCAA Championship finals.
All honorees will be recognized at a special luncheon on Tuesday, June 17, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the Hilton Charlotte University Place Hotel.