DAHLONEGA – Former University of North Georgia men's and women's golf graduate assistant Ryan Hogan has been named as a finalist for the 2024 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award presented by TaylorMade Golf Company. The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced Hogan along with three NCAA Division I and one other non-Division I assistant as the finalists for the award on Monday. 

The Strickland Award is presented annually to the NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, or NJCAA assistant coach that, among other things, has excelled in working with their student-athletes both on the course and in the classroom. 

New and beginning in 2024, two assistant coaches, one Division I and one non-Division I, will be named Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award presented by TaylorMade Golf Company recipients. 

Hogan competed at UNG for five years from 2018 to 2023. Shortly after his graduation, he became a graduate assistant with both the men's and women's golf teams, helping each of them to outstanding seasons in the 2023-24 campaign. 

On the men's side, of which is the focus of the GCAA, Hogan aided the Nighthawks in recording the best season in program history. UNG recorded six wins on the season which included program first-time wins in the Peach Belt Conference Championship and the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Championship. UNG would go on to finish as the National Runners-Up, following to No. 5 Colorado Chrisitan in the National Championship match.

Head coach Bryson Worley was named PBC and NCAA Division II Dave Williams National Coach of the Year. With Hogan's help, the Nighthawks had three players named to the PBC All-Conference and GCAA All-Region Teams while they added four names to the GCAA All-American Team. 

Hogan was announced as the newest men's golf assistant coach at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga back on June 27. 

Given that 2024 will serve as the first year in which The Strickland Award is given to more than one assistant beyond the Division I level, should Hogan win the award, he will become the first non-Division I assistant since the award's conception in 2003 to earn the honor.