Neil Abel, now in his 27th season as head coach of the Indians, has built his team into one of the top squads in the Sun Belt Conference and an annual contender to make the NCAA Regional field. Under his leadership, the Indians have made NCAA appearances four times as a team and two other times a single golfer from the Indians has participated in the NCAA field.
Abel’s amazing run included the school’s first trip ever to the NCAA field, when in 1997ASU was selected to participate in the NCAA Regional in Norman, Okla. The next two seasons Zoltan Veress was selected to represent the district as an individual, then the Indians went on a three-year run of team appearances, from 2000-2002.
While Abel places a high level of importance on being competitive on the national scene, his teams have always had to do the job in the classroom, too. Scott Crisco was named All-America Scholar in 2003 and Andrew Ross was selected in 2005 by the Golf Coaches Association’s Academic All-America team. The golf team in 2004 received a plaque from the Sun Belt Conference for achieving the highest grade point average of all men’s golf teams in the conference.
Abel’s association at Arkansas State has been a long one, going back to the days when he played baseball during the 1957-58 seasons before having to drop to part-time status at ASU so he could coach at a local school. Abel continued his education and received his degree in business administration in 1967 and then his master’s in secondary administration in 1975. In 1979, Abel was selected to be the ticket manager and also business manager at ASU before adding the title of golf coach in 1980. Abel gave up his other roles in 1988 to concentrate solely on golf and help establish a women’s golf team at ASU, a program he took over from 1992-96.
Prior to working at ASU, Abel was a highly successful basketball coach in Northeast Arkansas, compiling a total record of 369-121 in 21 seasons at Monette (14 years), Manila (six years) and Childress (one year). He coached two teams to the state championships and was twice named that state’s Coach of the Year. Abel also served as principal of the high school at Monette.
Abel is married to the former Margaret Darr, and has one daughter, Tammi Mardis, and three grandchildren.
