Matt Gehring is entering his second season as the men’s golf coach at Defiance College and seventh overall as a head coach. Gehring has been part of the athletic department since August 2023 and also serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance, Facilities and Internships. He became the men’s golf head coach in July 2024.

 

Through his first year leading the men’s golf team, the roster has bloomed from five to over 20 golfers. That created an uptick in inter-squad competition as two freshmen led the program in scoring average and three returning golfers bested their season averages from the previous season. Defiance also placed three players on the WHAC Academic All-Conference Team.

 

Gehring is an alumni of the men’s golf program, earning his bachelor’s degree in sport management at Defiance in 2012. The Fostoria, Ohio native then completed his MBA in 2014. After his four-year playing career, he became an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s golf teams in the fall of 2012. During his time at Defiance, he was also a graduate assistant in the admissions office and led operations at Eagle Rock Golf Club for the 2015 season. 

 

Gehring departed from Defiance after the fall 2015 campaign to help restart the golf program at Earlham College, which was on hiatus since 1992. He served as the Quakers’ head men’s and women’s golf for five years, one of which was used to recruit prior to competition, and held that post through the fall of 2020. By the third year since restarting the programs, the Quakers had a banner year at the 2018 HCAC Championships as the men’s team finished second place with two All-HCAC performers. The women’s team placed a program-best fourth during the conference championships that same season and had one all-conference performer. He took a brief break from athletics and remained in Richmond, Ind. as a student-athlete academic success coach and adjunct professor of several sports-related courses at IU-East. He spent two years at IU-East before moving closer to home in an academic advisor role at Ohio State-Lima prior to joining the athletic department at DC.