In 2022-23, Denise St. Pierre enters her 31st season as the Penn State head women’s golf coach and her 38th season overall. St. Pierre draws from her experience as a collegiate golfer, as well as a PGA teaching professional to help her student-athletes reach their full potential.
“In order to uphold the Penn State tradition of academic and athletic excellence, we provide each player with a safe environment to play the game at the highest level while balancing her time in the classroom,” says St. Pierre.
Every coach has a different strategy on how to run a team. St. Pierre’s strategy is not just centered around golf, but around education and dreams.
“My main job as a coach is to discuss what our team’s dreams and aspirations are while we’re here. My goals are to help them reach theirs. I?am a vehicle to allow my players to get where they want to go.”
She wants her players to improve themselves in all aspects of life - as a competitor, an athlete and a person - during their time at Penn State.
During her time at Penn State, St. Pierre has seen more than 180 student-athletes earn Academic All-Big Ten Honors while over 30 have been named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars since the award was instituted in 2008-09.
In addition to coaching the Nittany Lions, St. Pierre has extensive experience in international competitions throughout her coaching career.
This past season, the Nittany Lions struggled to find consistency in all three rounds, but fought hard in each tournament finishing with six top-10 finishes with one victory at the 2021 Nittany Lion Invitational with a tournament record 13-under finish, 12 strokes clear of their nearest competitor.
St. Pierre saw junior Mathilde Delavallade have her best career tournament as the junior turned in three consecutive under-par rounds finishing the championship with the second-lowest 54-hole total in Nittany Lion Invitational and program history at 10-under.
The Nittany Lions also turned in a fourth-place finish at the Boston College Intercollegiate, a sixth-place finish at the North Florida Collegiate and a seventh-place finish at the Lady Buckeye Invitational before finishing 10th at the Big Ten Championships.
During an unprecedented 2020-21 season, St. Pierre saw her team continue to get better as the spring went on, finishing with three-straight top-10’s, including a sixth-place finish at the Big Ten Championship, the fourth-best finish in program history and best since finishing fourth in 2014.Sarah Willis finished tied for sixth and earned a spot on the All-Championship team. It was the highest individual finish for a Nittany Lion at the Big Ten Championship in three years.
In 2019-20, the Nittany Lions had one of their most successful seasons in recent memory with eight top-10 finishes in 11 events, including a trio of tournament victories at the Nittany Lion Invitational, the Princeton Invitational and the Memphis Intercollegiate.
St. Pierre coached then-freshman Willis to the individual championship during the Nittany Lion Invitational as the rookie shattered the Penn State record for low 54-hole score with an 11-under, 205, final score.
The Nittany Lions also set a 54-hole team record with a 4-under, 860, score at the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational leading to a second-place finish. PSU set a tournament and program record on the final day with a 10-under, 278.
In 2017-18, St. Pierre coached the first Nittany Lion to the NCAA Regionals since the 2013-14 season as junior Cara Basso was selected for the 2018 Madison Regional. Basso finished tied for 42nd in the 96-player field.
St. Pierre led the Nittany Lions to the 2013 NCAA East Regional at Auburn University where the team finished in a tie for 19th place. The following year, after finishing fourth in the Big Ten Championship, St. Pierre led a pair of individuals to the NCAA East Regional as Christina Vosters and Ellen Ceresko were selected for the 2014 field. Vosters finished in a tie for 36th while Ceresko tied for 41st in the field of 126 golfers.
One of the Nittany Lions’ best seasons in Penn State history was the 2002-03 campaign when they finished 13th at the NCAA East Regional, narrowly missing a trip to the NCAA Championships. Senior Katie Futcher tied for third and qualified as an individual for the Championships and would finish in a tie for 55th. The year prior, Futcher competed as an individual in the East Regional, finishing in seventh place.
In August 2004, St. Pierre helped coach the U.S. team at the World University Games in Thailand where they won the gold medal. Penn State’s own Katie Futcher captured the individual title in that event.
St. Pierre was selected by the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) in June 1999 to coach the U.S. team at the U.S./Japan Collegiate Golf Championships in Chiba, Japan, where the Americans captured their fourth consecutive title.
In its February 2002 issue, Golf for Women magazine named St. Pierre to its “Top 50 Women PGA/LPGA Instructors” list.
St. Pierre has served as President of the NGCA. While president, she led the NGCA in volunteer work in New Orleans in relief of Hurricane Katrina. At the annual NGCA convention, which was moved from New Orleans to Tahoe, Nevada, St. Pierre introduced an idea to the membership that called for as many golf programs around the country as possible to conduct fundraisers to raise money for the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. Through the efforts of the Nittany Lion women’s golf team as well as those by more than 30 other women’s golf programs around the country, the NGCA raised $60,000 to build a home for a displaced family in New Orleans. The efforts of the NGCA culminated when St. Pierre and several of her colleagues traveled to New Orleans and volunteered to help finish building the house that they sponsored through the Habitat for Humanity.
In 2006, St. Pierre served, for the second time, as the assistant coach of the United States women’s golf team at the World University Games held in Torino, Italy. St. Pierre also served as the coach in 2004. She led the team to a gold medal for the second straight time.
From 2000-04, St. Pierre served as secretary for the NGCA, She later became the president. St. Pierre has been a guest lecturer for the PGA teaching and coaching summit, as well as the National Golf Foundation.
A Class A member of the PGA, the Nittany Lion coach has taught in New York and Florida and is currently the director of instruction at the Penn State Golf Courses. During the winter, St. Pierre teaches a golf conditioning class for the local community. She also serves as the director for the Penn State summer golf schools, and co-directs five junior camps. In addition to teaching, St. Pierre is the author of Golf Fundamentals, an instructional book for recreational players.
“It is about them being balanced and how we can encompass academics and personal growth in order for our student-athletes to reach their potential,” St. Pierre says.
Student-athletes face challenges both on and off the course that affect how they play their game. As a coach, she believes she must be aware of those factors in order to help the student-athlete cope on the course.
“You have to first know what you want,” she adds. “I believe every student-athlete has more potential than they realize. It is my job to help draw that potential out of them.”
St. Pierre repeatedly stresses the importance of academic success to her student-athletes. After the 2013-14 season, the team received the Milt Morgan Jr. award, given to the team with highest average GPA at Penn State. In addition, three of St. Pierre’s players were named WGCA All-American scholars.
In the 2013-14 season, St. Pierre also saw her players excel on the course as her top two Nittany Lions, Christina Vosters and Ellen Ceresko, both qualified for the NCAA East Regionals as individuals. In Tallahassee, Vosters and Ceresko finished T-36th and T-41st, respectively.
She understands that golf is not her student-athletes’ entire life. Each student-athlete is also at Penn State to receive an education and a life experience.
This Class A teaching professional hopes that her players can develop “using my background as a player, I can display the right attitude and the right actions that I want them to follow.”
St. Pierre prepares her players for tournaments, both mentally and physically. The most important thing for her is to have as much information about a tournament, including climate, environment, grass, layout of the golf course and the competition.
Physically, she has her players practice the things that are most likely to occur at those sites.
“The more you know about the situation, the better you can prepare yourself both mentally and physically. The fewer the surprises, the more confident we can be,” says the Nittany Lion head coach.
A native of Syracuse, N.Y., St. Pierre chose Penn State for its academic and athletic reputation. As a Nittany Lion herself, St. Pierre’s team won several team titles as well as qualified for the NCAA Championships.
After her graduation in 1983, St. Pierre completed an apprenticeship with the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) at the Innisbrook Resort in Tarpon Springs, Fla. In 1985, she returned to Penn State as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s golf teams under Mary Kennedy-Zierke. She earned the 1991 Mid-Atlantic/East Region Coach of the Year honors.