University of Sioux Falls Athletics

Tavia Rutherford is in her second year as Assistant Athletic Director of Ticketing and Operations/Head Men's and Women's Golf Coach at the University of Sioux Falls.

Rutherford, who ranks as one of USF's best golfers in school history, is in a dual role as coach for the golf teams while handling operations and ticketing for USF Athletics. Previously, Rutherford, who was named to the post in May, 2019, was an assistant golf coach and an admissions counselor at USF. 

In 2020 and 2021, Rutherford won the Sioux Falls City Championship. In 2021, she was a SDGA Match Play Semi-Finalist. 

In 2021, Rutherford directed the USF Men's and Women's Golf Teams to one of the best seasons in program history. The USF Women's Team, led by NSIC Golfer of the Year Lexi Hanson, finished a program-best second (960) at the NSIC Championships in the spring. USF, which was ranked as high as 11th in the region, had a program-best four student-athletes named All-NSIC, including first-year performers Lexi Hanson and Maggie Veenendall while Sydney Hubbard and Kyleigh Moran were second team honorees. In addition, Moran and Hanson earned All-NSIC Tourney honors. Hanson also earned a second straight trip to the NCAA DII regionals where she was 10th. USF had six student-athletes named Academic All-NSIC with four named to the NSIC Academic Team of Excellence. Hanson, Hubbard, Lexi Jonas and Moran were named to bot hteams with Annie Balduzzi and Veenendall Academic All-NSIC.

As for the men's team, USF earned its first-ever berth at the 2021 NCAA DII Central Regional, finished 15th with 922 total. At that regional, USF, which was ranked 7th in the final regional rankings, had  third at the NSIC Golf Championships, which ranks tied for second-best all-time with a 886 total. Gavin Metz (29th) and JJ Cooney (45th) both finished in the top 45. At the NSIC Men's Golf Championships, USF was third (886) and tied for second-best program finish. NSIC Newcomer of the Year Gavin Metz was third overall at the NSIC Championships in which all five USF golfers played in the top 10 with Metz and senior Brendan Bassing recording top-10 finishes. Cooney earned a fourth straight All-NSIC honor while Brendan Bassing was All-NSIC. Cooney was named a CoSIDA Academic All-District VII honoree for the second straight year, a program-first. Seven golfers were named Academic All-NSIC while four earned NSIC Academic Team of Excellence honors. Those four earning both honors included Cooney, Jacob Zosel, Hank Eggebraaten and Nathan Woodall while Jake Oetzmann, Bassing and Jack Evans were named Academic All-NSIC. In addition, Zosel was named USF's Representative Man of the Year - the honor honor accorded a male student at USF.

In 2019-20, Rutherford led both the USF men's and women's golf programs to record-breaking years; highlighted by two team wins and five individual medalists. The women’s team was ranked ninth in the Central Region and the men ranked 12th before the abrupt end to their season due to COVID-19. She coached Lexi Hanson to her lowest scoring average of 74.50 which ranked first in the NSIC and JJ Cooney who was named USF’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 2019-20. Cooney was also named a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and one of 14 golf student-athletes (8, men's team; 6 women's team) honored on the NSIC All-Academic Team (3.2 GPA or better). Eight USF golfers were also named to the NSIC Academic Team of Excellence (3.6 or greater GPA).

During the spring (2020), Rutherford represented the NSIC by serving on the Women’s Golf Regional Advisory Committee in an interim capacity. Rutherford also serves on the USF Athletics Hall of Fame Committee.
 
Rutherford, who competed at USF from 2011-15, reached the NCAA DII Regionals three times and the NCAA DII National Tournament as a senior which was a first for a USF golfer. As an assistant coach, she provided invaluable assistance to USF golf teams which both finished in the top five of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (women, fourth; men, fifth).

A native of Bakersfield, Calif., Rutherford graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science in 2015 from USF. She had an outstanding career both in competition and in the classroom at USF. In 2012-13, she became USF's first golfer to compete in the NCAA DII Central Region Tournament. As a junior (2013-14), she placed sixth at the NSIC Women's Golf Championships, which earned her a berth at the NCAA Regionals for a second straight year.

A three-time All-NSIC performer, Rutherford became USF's first-ever NSIC Golfer of the Year as a senior. She was also named the NCAA Elite 89 Award winner (2014-15) which is the highest academic honor bestowed on a student-athlete.

Rutherford capped off her outstanding career at USF by equaling her best round of the NCAA Championship and finishing tied for 37^th.  Competing as an individual out of the Central Region in 2015, Rutherford finished as the fourth-highest golfer out of 18 Central Region competitors. Rutherford was the highest finishing representative (seven total) from the NSIC at the NCAA Championship. Rutherford became USF's first-ever selection to the Women's Golf Coaches' Association All-Central Region team for the 2014-15 season.  

One of USF's mostly highly decorated student-athletes, Rutherford earned the Butch Raymond Scholarship Award, and was an NSIC Honor Student-Athlete, Myles Brand Award recipient and FCA Honor Athlete.  In addition, she was also named the Outstanding Senior Exercise Science Student and Outstanding Senior Psychology Student for her research exploring the effects of imagery direction on golf-putting performance at USF.

After leaving USF, she earned a Master of Arts degree in sport and performance psychology from University of Denver in 2017. At DU, she served as the Head of Operations for the Center for Performance Excellence (CPEX) as well as a mental skills consultant working with a variety of athletic teams.