By: Erin Madden

BEREA, Ohio - Brady Hurley ‘96 found his lifelong passion on a golf course.

Sure, the former Baldwin Wallace University men’s golf player loves the sport, reminisces about his competitive career and still hits the fairways from time to time. But it was his time spent as an assistant golf pro at StoneWater Golf Club in Highland Heights where Hurley was introduced to working with children.

Fast forward, then, to the 2020-2021 school year to find Hurley in his first full year as the Lower School Dean of Students at University School.

Hurley grew up going to the local public golf course with his parents and his sisters for “nine holes, a hot dog and a Coke.” By the time he was 10 years old, Hurley was regularly beating his dad on the par-3 short course.

“I grew up on a 40-acre property and I would hit golf balls all over the place, chase after them and hit them again,” Hurley said. “I would aim at telephone poles, tree stumps and other targets for hours. I learned how to play from all different types of situations and conditions.”

Despite a good high school golf career, Hurley’s first love was baseball and he was being recruited to play at a few smaller schools, thinking he didn’t really have a shot at continuing to play golf.

“Coming from a small town in rural Ohio, there weren’t too many opportunities to get noticed in the world of golf at that time unless you played in high level junior tournaments,” Hurley explained.

However, some larger schools began to take notice of Hurley’s golf game, which caught his attention. He originally planned to walk-on at one of those larger schools until BW came calling.

“I came for a campus tour and I instantly knew that BW was the place for me,” Hurley recalled. “It was friendly, welcoming and just the right size for me.”

At that time, Hurley had no intention of playing collegiate golf until a graduating senior named Brian Varsey began to share his experiences and a few rounds with the future Yellow Jacket. Varsey was the one who told Hurley that he had what it took to play at the college level.

When Hurley tried out for the team, he played with former head coach Dick Kamman, birdied the first two holes and never looked back. The four-year letterwinner appeared in 30 tournaments and 49.5 rounds throughout his career, twice shooting a career-low round of 78 and once tying for second at the home BW Invitational at Sleepy Hollow Golf Course.

In the classroom, Hurley was a double major in business administration and sport management. During his junior and senior years, he interned with the Northern Ohio Professional Golfers Association where he met a fellow Yellow Jacket alumnus in Craig Immel, who was the professional at Westwood Country Club at the time. Little did Hurley know that, in a few short years, he would be working for Immel as an assistant pro at the newly-built StoneWater Golf Club.

“The role of an assistant pro can be tough,” Hurley said. “The hours can be long and you can easily find yourself envious of others because they are playing golf and you are not - but you do take great pride in knowing that your job is to help other people appreciate and enjoy the game of golf as much as you do.”

One of the many roles of an assistant golf pro is running junior golf programs, which was Hurley’s first introduction to working with children and a foreshadowing of his current career.

However, when StoneWater changed ownership, Hurley felt like his time there would be coming to an end and so he went on to briefly work in golf sales at another local company. He still maintained contact with the new ownership group, though.

The new owner had taken notice of Hurley, particularly how well he worked with his own three children, and invited him to lunch one day to talk about his future. When asked what he wanted to do with his life, Hurley already knew his answer.

“I wanted to get into education like my father and grandmother but I wasn’t sure how to do it,” Hurley said. “Already in debt, I didn’t want to dig myself out of a larger pile so I hadn’t pursued it yet. He proposed a deal that turned out to be the opportunity of a lifetime.”

The club offered to pay for a Master’s degree in education. In return, Hurley would commit to working at the club during the summer for five years after graduation to help mentor the owner’s son, who would eventually run the club one day.

“I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that Jim gave me and for seeing something in me that I didn’t know I had,” Hurley expressed, “and that was a passion for working with people, especially children.”

Hurley then enrolled at Ursuline College for a one-year intensive Master’s program that happened to partner with University School. Most of his field experience and student teaching took place at the school’s Shaker Heights campus.

At the end of the program, Hurley interviewed with the Head of School for a third grade teaching position and was offered the job “within the hour.” He spent nine years teaching third grade followed by nine years teaching fourth grade until the Lower School Dean of Students job presented itself. Once again, Hurley found himself interviewing for the job and quickly accepting it.

“These transitions were all very difficult because I wasn’t necessarily looking for a change as my life was very enjoyable and stable,” Hurley said. “But when the opportunities arose, I owed it to myself and my family to consider them. Taking these chances in life has allowed me to grow both personally and professionally.”

As Dean of Students for Junior Kindergarten through fifth grade, Hurley is primarily responsible for creating a positive school climate and helping students develop a positive self-concept.

Over the summer, Hurley was also part of the team that designed the plan for a safe return to in-person learning. The plan was successful as University School had safe, in-person learning for the first 50 days but the school has since switched to remote learning until after winter break.

Hurley sees his time spent on the golf course as full of lessons, ones he can share with his students as well.

“Golfers often seek perfection, which is unrealistic even at the highest level of the sport,” Hurley said. “It is very important to me to share with the students that I work with to not seek perfection, instead strive for mastery. Perfection halts progress, whereas mastery still leaves room for learning.”

Now when Hurley steps up to the first tee, he isn’t doing so as a collegiate golfer or an assistant pro. Rather, he does so as a family man and a teacher, trying to show his 11-year-old son and his younger daughters the game that he grew up loving.

“I am trying to do what my parents did with me as a child and that is just to go out, play the game the right way and have fun doing it,” Hurley said. “The results of the game are less important to me these days. The results of my time with my family makes all the difference.”