John Thomas Horton was named Tulane's head women's golf coach on July 4, 2007. Horton comes to Tulane from Georgia Southern where he served two years as an assistant coach for the Eagles' men's golf program. He inherits a program that advanced to five NCAA Regionals from 2000-05. In addition, the team advanced to the 2005 NCAA National Championships where the team finished 15th. The program was suspended in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005.

What attracted you to the job here at Tulane?

"The biggest attraction was the opportunity to have a team that would compete nationally. Sue Bower and her teams established a fine tradition of national prominence inside the NCAA golf community. The athletic program is focused on doing things right - with winning, and more than anything else, with providing the student-athlete with the best opportunity to succeed. I was impressed with the staff and with the opportunity to win a championship here."

Do you feel any additional pressure that, while the team hasn't played in two years, has a tremendously successful history?

"Yes and no. Obviously, Sue Bower had done a fantastic job in bringing the program up to being Top 15 in the country during the last season of competition. The only pressure I feel whatsoever is that we have to move fast on building a team and we have to get five or six girls ready to play in short amount of time.

"The facilities and the tradition are both here, as well as the academic ability of the school and the support program from the athletic department, so I feel there is no reason why we can't get the program back to where it was before. From that standpoint, I feel no pressure.

"The only pressure I feel is making sure we get the right fit of the first five or six girls because they are going to be the nucleus of the team for the next four years."

How soon do you think the program can return to where it was prior to suspension?

"It depends on how recruiting finalizes. Based on the student-athletes I'm looking at now, if everything goes as planned and we can get the ones I'm looking at, we will obviously be very successful. I expect within the first two years - I don't think we'll go back to national prominence right away - when those girls are finishing their sophomore years, I have all expectations of us being in the Top 30, competing for a conference championship, and of course going to regionals, and finding our way to the national championship. That's very realistic."

What is the best thing about working and living in New Orleans?

"Some of the big questions I've been asked is how is recruiting going to be to a school and a city that has been through so much over the past two years. Honestly, New Orleans is a unique and distinctive city. It has so much flair, so much culture and so much diversity. It's such an awesome place for a student-athlete to spend their time for four years. It's the chance of a lifetime.

"To me, I think the city is in fantastic shape. You can see the resiliency of the school, and you can see the resiliency of the city. Sure, there are some areas that have not bounced back all the way yet, but where the Tulane students will be - in the uptown area, downtown, the historic Garden District and where the golf courses are - are all in fine shape and I would have absolutely no concern about sending my own child to a school like Tulane and a city as unique and interesting as New Orleans."

The student-athletes at Tulane University have to balance a fine line of academic excellence and athletic prowess. Is that different for you compared to where you've been before?

"A little bit, yes. Georgia Southern - where I was before I came here - is a fantastic school, but the standards of academic excellence that Tulane sets is far beyond not just Georgia Southern, but a lot of schools in the country. It has a reputation of being the Ivy League of the South. It is a fantastic academic university and it's important to find the right student-athlete that can juggle two full-time jobs - one being academics and one being an athlete. I think it is of the utmost importance to find the right person to handle that combination of academics and golf. "With that being said, I think it's a fantastic opportunity for a student-athlete. When you come away with a Tulane degree, the doors are wide open for you in terms of the business world and corporate world."

You often hear the phrase that a lot of business decisions being made on the golf course. With Tulane having such a good business school in the A.B. Freeman School of Business, do you think this helps in recruiting a sport like golf?

"Yes, I think so. Part of being a great student, a great student-athlete or a great business person is having the ability to make the right decisions at the right time, the tough decisions at certain points of your life, certain parts of your schooling and certain points on the golf course. I think that's why people coincide that. There's time organization management. There's course management. There's some sort of management involved with business and the professional world. I think that's where they try to see the similar characteristics of both. "If you can provide that when you're talking about a golf course and a student-athlete, they're managing themselves around the golf course. They're managing their time in their academics, their practices and their lives in being a student and an athlete at the same time. That's where managing all those in the same atmosphere is so crucial."

Do you think your experiences as a college coach and professional golfer helped you as a head coach?

"A great deal. There's no doubt about it. When the athletic administration decided to hire me, they hired me for a number of reasons. One is because I have the ability to develop players and that comes from my experiences of working with the some of the best instructors, sports psychologists, trainers and fitness trainers in the world. Five and half years of professional golf has given me the ability to not only develop players but develop them correctly.

"Correctly is an important word there because you have them for four years. What you want to do is make that progress that they've already built on to help that progress continue to develop in the right way. But more than anything else, it gives me as a coach the ability to work with each player as an individual and as part of a team.

"You may have one student-athlete that needs to be taught a different way. You may have a visual learner who needs to learn by video and computer. Or you they might have a feel player, who learns by ball-flight pattern or how the ball comes off the face or contact.

"You have to be able to develop a player in the right way and understand how to teach them. They also have different personalities so you have to know how to deal with each personality on the team. That comes from good experiences in both my professional career and of course at Georgia Southern.

"Georgia Southern was an elite men's program and we were able to play the best teams in the country day in and day out. You have to be able to develop a player to be competitive in the strongest competition as possible."

You always hear that coaches try to develop student-athletes both on the course and in the classroom. As a former student-athlete yourself, how do you draw on those experiences to help your future players?

"The truth of the matter is as a coach, you have to understand and respect what your student-athletes are going through. You have to understand the huge amount of time and effort they put into it. What helped me was because I was a good student and a good athlete at my school, so I know it can be done.

"I had a good GPA with a 3.30. I was also a two-time academic conference scholar and a two-time golf All-American. That shows me that you can combine the best of both worlds. It just takes the right management, the right discipline level in your student-athletes, and that's what I look for when I go recruiting. You look for that progression of success where they've played national tournaments for the last three or four years, and on top of that, they've got good SAT or ACT scores and have a great academic history. They've done well in their classes and have proven they can be that staple of leadership in the classroom as well as their golf game. That is what's going to help them make that transition from high school to college."

You have the unique opportunity to work with the person who originally built Tulane women's golf into a nationally-prominent program in Sue Bower. Talk about your relationship with Sue Bower and how she has helped ease your transition here at Tulane?

"Sue Bower has been a huge asset. She's a good friend of mine and we've made a great connection right off the bat. It's great to have a former coach - actually three former coaches (Bower with women's golf, Betsy Laborde with volleyball and Daniella Irle with swimming and diving) - in the athletic administration. But more importantly, Sue has great relationships built here.

"She built the tradition of the program and helped me to find my way around on my first couple of unofficial visits and making sure that I have the right information to provide to recruits when I'm talking to them. I've actually involved her in some of the visits and from the standpoint of the relationships she's built around here and the reputation she has inside the Division I women's golf community is fantastic. I plan on using her as she is willing to be involved.

"Sue has given me the reins and entrusted me with the program. Her No. 1 concern now is athletics as a whole as she has demonstrated with her accomplishments as an administrator.

What are your short and long-term goals for the Tulane women's golf program?

"Realistically - and some people may think that I'm jumping the gun here but I don't think they would have brought me in here if I didn't have these expectations - I expect that within the first two years of competition that we'll be in the Top 30 in the country. We'll be competing for conference championships and we will definitely be making it to the regional championships and on to the NCAAs with a competitive record against the top teams in the country. I strongly believe that with the past success, strong tradition and the response I've received while recruiting, I fully expect to be able to develop these players to be competitive within the NCAA and the top programs.

"Long term, I expect this program to be a top program for a long time. One of the reasons I chose Tulane University was because I fell in love with the place. I fell in love with the opportunity, the facilities at Audubon Golf Club, TPC of Louisiana and of course English Turn. It just doesn't get any better than that. They're second to none.

"The athletic administration is behind their sports 100 percent. The academic sector of the school is as good as it gets. When you put that combination with the city of New Orleans and the right weather patterns for golf to play year round, it's a perfect fit. Having a former coach in the administration above you, it's a perfect world as I call it."

What is the most exciting thing about being the head women's golf coach at Tulane?

"It's just a once in a lifetime opportunity for me as a coach and incoming players to be a part of a rebirth to a nationally-prominent program. There's nowhere else in the world where anybody else can say that. We've had the tradition of being a great program, and now we get to be the rebirth of that.

"While Sue Bower has done a fantastic job, I have the opportunity as a coach to put my own stamp on the program, as do these incoming players to put their stamp on the program. I'm going to bring in what could be four, five or maybe even six freshmen who are going to play immediately against the best teams in the country and they need to be ready to go. They have an opportunity to build the new Tulane women's golf program. Coaches and players have a chance to put their own stamp of their own stature, and I'm extremely excited to have this unique opportunity."