Normal U-High’s Dennis wins CSM 2025 Girls Golf Coach of the Year
- Clutch Sports Staff
- 6h
- 6 min read
Time flies when you’re having fun and for Normal U-High’s girls golf team and head coach Greg Dennis, winning also happens when you’re having fun.
Dennis oversaw a Pioneers team that won more tournaments in 2025 than they have fingers to count them, including the Class 2A Metamora Regional and finished fifth at the Class 2A State Finals. Normal U-High was the highest finishing team at state among the 39 teams in the Clutch Sports Media coverage area and fittingly, Dennis earned CSM’s 2025 Girls Golf Coach of the Year.
Dennis’ coaching career has spanned from the basketball court onto the golf course in Normal. Since becoming the Pioneers’ girls golf coach in 2010, the team has qualified for state 12 times, won nine straight Bloomington/Normal Intercity titles, won seven straight regional titles and won state championships in 2011 and 2019.
The veteran leader coached four Clutch Sports Media Girls Golf All-Area selections, including three that were first team honorees.
Hear from Headrick in our interview with him below, some responses have been minimally edited for clarity.
What have you been able to reflect on in the days since the season has ended?
“Probably the biggest thing is the growth since we started the season, the positive environment that we started with and just seeing the desire to be successful, then watching it come to fruition. The whole year long, you're always kind of waiting for the hiccup that throws you off course but just never happened. It was just a snowball rolling down a hill.”
“It’s definitely a family environment while we're together. When we separate, I think you have those pains, like ‘Where are they? What are they doing?’ because you become so close for so long and you miss that.”
In your mind, what made the team so special this year?
“I think it was the leadership. Last year, we didn't finish quite the way we wanted to and I could see it in our seniors’ eyes at the time and the rest of them. I felt like they were thinking that this is never going to happen again [but] we thought that we're going to do some things and see if we can't make ourselves better and, lo and behold, we did.
“I'd say that probably the positive thing that came from it the most is how they interact with each other. You know, I said family earlier, but they poke and prod and challenge each other, just like siblings the whole season and then, before you know it, I'm doing the same thing. I always have to preface that by saying ‘It's okay if I say that’ or ‘It's okay if I do that,’ because I start poking fun as well so it becomes a blast. To think about it and look forward to it, and then for it all to come out to be like that is just perfect.”
What’s your coaching background?
“I actually work outside of school for a company that was purchased not long ago in their digital equipment/IT world so right now, I manage all the equipment. As far as coaching goes, I started 26 years ago at Calvary Christian Academy [in Normal] and at the time, it was Calvary Baptist Academy. I was asked to do it and I kept saying, No, I wasn't a coach, I was a player and the person that was the AD said that’s what makes the best coach because you're a coach that was once an athlete, so you have a different perspective. I kept saying, ‘Not me, I can't do it,’ and I decided, I went home, talked to my family, prayed about it, and I called him and I said, ‘I don't know what's going on, but I think I'm supposed to coach girls basketball at Calvary.’”
“That first year, we went 2-18. I'm very competitive so 2-18 didn’t sit well with me so I'm like, ‘Okay, I think I got to put more work into this to come back.’ I was there six years, and in those six years, we went to their version of state three times. Once we got fourth and twice we got second. Then Laura Sellers, the head coach here at U-High, contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in coming on board. I first said no, and then thought it would be a challenge, because I thought if I did it here, I could take this show on the road and see if I can do it there. I came on board with her, the first two or three seasons went really well, and I realized that I liked being a head coach. The opportunity came up to coach golf and I stepped into it and I have never looked back.”
“I've coached golf for 17 years now, been at U-High for 20 and I actually had to put this information together for something else [but] I have 13 regional titles, five sectional titles and two state titles. I went from basketball with some recognition and some success to golf with the same, same results. I’m truly a blessed man. I have been put in the right place with the right people at the right time and that gets me to this point.”
What helps keep you going?
“First of all, it goes by so fast you don't realize it. The biggest thing when I started coaching, I always thought if I have anything to offer anyone, then that's what that's what I would do, that would be my purpose. So I look at myself as a coach, a mentor, a manager. I'm a big fan of everyone I coach, but I think I always look at it as trying to help someone be successful because through my life as an athlete, I played in a different genre, baseball [and] softball, and had some success. I've always thought if I can help someone else be successful through sports, it's a life lesson that I'm willing to put the time and money into.”
“I don't see this as a reward for me, I think it's more of a reward for the people that I’ve coached. It’s not about me, it's about the people that I coached and the people whose lives that I've affected along the way. Those are the ones that come back and tell me, ‘Hey, Coach, I learned this. I remember this. I can hear you in my head saying that.’ So I accept awards like this when they do come, but not on my behalf, but on behalf of the people that have put me in this position: U-High, my family, the players, because it's them that make everything happen.”
Aside from winning, what’s a fun memory with your players that you’ve had from this past season?
“There’s been so many of them really, we laugh and joke all the time. I'm gonna be honest with you though, winning is a byproduct. You're out there having fun and so the winning just happens because we're having so much fun. There are times that feel like it's a moment where I have to break the tension so I'll challenge them. I'll say something to one of them on a par three and they'll do something and so the next person that comes up, I’ll challenge them, saying, ‘Hey so and so did this, you got to do it,’ and then we'll start laughing about it. It's always the comments that come after that that are the funny part so I would say most of them are when I meet [the players] on the course.”
What’s a piece of coaching advice you’d give?
“It’s not about me, it’s about what I can provide to kids, the athletes that I'm coaching, My goal when I set up practice or when I go to a tournament or match is it's never focused on me. It's me trying to help them sometimes get out of their way and be the best and play the best they can at that moment in time.”