Risë Alexander Position: Head Coach Experience: 24th Year Alma Mater: Oregon State, 1977

Risë (pronounced REE-suh) Alexander enters her 24th year as the head coach of the Oregon State women's golf team making her the dean of coaches at Oregon State University.

Since Alexander took over in 1990, the golf program has made 10 postseason appearances and the 1998 squad was the first Oregon State team to qualify for the NCAA Championships where it finished 16th in the nation. She was named Far West District Coach of the Year after that historic season.

In her time with the Beavers, she has coached one All-American (Kathleen Takaishi, 1998) and five All-Pac-10 selections and had student-athletes earn NGCA All-American Scholar status 14 times and Pac-10 All-Academic honors 29 times.

This past season was very successful as the Beavers won their ninth team tournament in school history and two Oregon State golfers -- Whitney French and Seshia Telles -- won individual titles. French finished the season with the fifth best scoring average in school history (76.10) and had the second lowest individual tournament finish for a Beaver golf with a 1-under 215. Telles finished with a freshman school record scoring average (75.81) that is the second best in school history.

Alexander has served on the National Golf Coaches Association for the past 14 years, spending eight years as a member of the Division I Awards Committee and six years as a member of the NGCA Board of Directors. In 2005, she received the NGCA Founders Award for outstanding service to the NGCA, women's collegiate golf and the local community.

Alexander competed for the Oregon State women's golf team from 1973-77 and played in four AIAW National Championships and won two collegiate events and several amateur tournaments during her career. She also played basketball for the Beavers making her one of the few two-sport athletes in Oregon State history.

After graduating with honors from Oregon State in 1977, Alexander competed professionally until 1981 and also served as the volunteer head coach for the Beavers in 1978-79, 1982-83 and 1983-84.

As an amateur competitor, she was a semifinalist in the 1973 Western Junior Championship and also a semifinalist in the 1976 U.S. Women's Amateur. The U.S. Amateur finish exempted her from U.S. Open qualifiers for three consecutive years.

Born in Laurel, Miss., Alexander grew up in Hot Springs, Ark., and began playing golf at the age of eight. She had a spectacular junior golf career that included two Arkansas Junior Championships, two Arkansas High School Championships and Oregon High School and Pacific Northwest Junior Championships.

Alexander has resided in Corvallis since 1981 and has two children, Laura and Joey.