Last Updated: August 1, 2016
Brian Ferrante `13, the most decorated golfer in the brief history of the New Jersey City University men’s golf team, and an Academic All-American for the Gothic Knights, tees off for his third season as head coach of the golf program at his alma mater in 2016-17. He continues to add talented recruits and depth to a program competing for only the seventh season on the intercollegiate level.
Originally appointed the program’s third-ever head coach in Summer, 2014, in his first season there were some notable achievements. The program produced a cumulative grade point average of 3.18 at the end of the Fall 2014 semester—the second highest of any team at NJCU and the best on record for a men’s athletic team. Meanwhile, his standout captain and graduate student golfer, Frank Rivera, followed in his coach’s footsteps and earned Capital One First-Team Academic All-District 2 Division III Men's At-Large honors.
In 2014-15, Rivera also was bestowed the Capital Athletic Conference’s Andrew Geyer Memorial Scholar-Athlete Award in NJCU’s second year in the league. Rivera took home NJCU’s Presidential Academic Achievement Award with the highest GPA of any male athlete. In his first two seasons as head coach, Ferrante has produced four CAC All-Academic Team honorees.
In Spring 2015, freshman Tyler Young became the first golfer to receive a major weekly or monthly accolade when he claimed Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Men's Rookie Golfer of the Month honors days after carding the first eagle in school history. In his second season, two of his freshmen, Alexander Sill and Bobby Williams, claimed CAC Weekly Honor Roll mention with Sill a three-time selection.
Off the course, Ferrante works full-time on campus as an admissions counselor in the NJCU Office of University Admissions.
Prior to NJCU, Ferrante acted as the director of Guest and Outdoor Operations at the Sand Barrens Golf Club in Cape May Court House, NJ, where he worked for 11 years. He was also the director and lead golf instructor at the Indian Head Camp in Honesdale, PA in 2011
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Ferrante, a 2013 NJCU alum with a degree in History and a near perfect 3.986 GPA, won multiple awards in his two years at NJCU, setting a fine example for his future proteges.
As a senior, Ferrante was voted to the Capital One Second Team Academic All-America® Men's At-Large team and the First-Team Academic All-District® 2 squad as voted by the College Sports Information Directors of America, becoming the first men's golfer to earn each award and one of just a handful of Academic All-Americans in the history of NJCU athletics.
In January 2014 he was a double-honoree, sweeping the school’s top two annual awards when he was bestowed the 2012-13 Thomas M. Gerrity Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the then-Gothic Knight Academic Achievement Award. The Thomas M. Gerrity Scholar-Athlete of the Year, presented since 1990-91, is the most prestigious honor any NJCU student-athletes can receive. Ferrante was the first member of the golf program to win either major NJCU award.
His leadership on the course was evident since his transfer to NJCU and was team captain in both years he played for the Knights (2011-13) while attending NJCU on a full Presidential academic scholarship.
He set a pair of school records at the 2012 NJCU Fall Invitational when he shot a school-record plus-7 round of 78 and claimed first place medalist honors. As a senior, he had three top-two finishes, including second place at the Sage Spring Invitational with a 79 and at the NYU Poly meet. He also owns NJCU’s 36-hole record with a +19 two-round total of 161 (82-79) at the 2011 Dowling College September Shootout.
Ferrante was inducted in the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and while an undergrad, worked as a study hall monitor, aid and retention coach for NJCU’s Athletic Academic Retention Program (AARP). He is currently seeking his M.A. in Counseling at NJCU.
He transferred to NJCU from Atlantic Cape Community College. A native of Woodbine, NJ in Cape May County, Ferrante is an alum of Cape May Tech.
Born in April, 1991, Ferrante, 25, resides in Jersey City.
