ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern Athletic Director Nate Stewart today announced that Head Women's Golf Coach Jason Badecki will also serve the University as the leader of Eastern's men's golf program. Badecki, who has led the Eastern women for the past three years, will take over for Mark Birtwistle, who stepped away from his golf responsibilities after 11 years leading the program. Birtwistle will continue to lead Eastern's nationally-ranked women's volleyball program.

Birtwistle was the 2014 Freedom Conference Golf Coach of the Year, and this year helped the Eagles to their most successful regular season in program history. Eastern finished second at the MAC Freedom Championship meet in late April. The decision for Birtwistle was a tough one, but with golf programs moving a greater percentage of their competitive matches into the fall, it became more and more difficult to manage schedules and devote the right amount of time and energy to both programs.

Eastern Volleyball has won 18 conference championships in the last 19 years and is consistently ranked in the AVCA National Poll.

"I appreciate Mark's dilemma and his desire to see his athletes have the best possible experience." Nate Stewart said in making the announcement. "He is a tremendous coach and mentor. Mark wants to see the golf program to continue to grow and to take our volleyball program to an even higher level. Mark will serve our department in some other ways, and both the volleyball and the golf program will have a head coach who will be more available."

Badecki played collegiate golf at Rutgers-Camden and has shown the ability to recruit athletes and to lead a program. He was MAC Women's Coach of the Year in 2014. While managing both programs will present some challenges, it will also create some efficiencies within the overall golf program. Badecki will continue to serve as the department's facilities coordinator.

"Jason is really looking forward to this challenge," Stewart continued, "With the [Danny A. Hearing] indoor facility and our relationship with St. Davids Golf Club, we have an ideal scenario for growing our golf programs. Jason will recruit good players for both programs and be able to work with them in both semesters."

Badecki has jumped into the new role and has already started recruiting, fundraising, and scheduling.