McCoy Biagioli spent his youth years growing up on the golf course, this time spent led to his successful playing career.
Growing up in a family filled with athletes made it much easier for Biagioli to fall in love with golf. His parents both played sports growing up, and Biagioli was no exception.
During his high school years, he played football, basketball and baseball, alongside golf. For most of high school, golf was his fourth sport, that was until he started taking golf seriously during his junior year.
In addition to the school season, he would play in amateur tournaments in the summer, which led him to garner interest from college coaches.
One of those coaches was Ferris head coach Sam Stark. Stark took account of Biagioli’s multi-sport background and used it as a driving force in his recruitment to Ferris.
“Being a football, basketball and baseball player in his past was such a unique blend for us,” Stark said. “It takes some physical, and mostly mental toughness to do that and we loved that about him, we felt he was severely under-recruited on his path by other schools. Their loss, our gain.”
Ferris was a pretty simple choice for Biagioli, he frequented his grandparents’ cabin in White Cloud, which is just 30 minutes away from campus, allowing him to be a fan of the Bulldogs and obtain knowledge on the school and their sports.
“Growing up knowing the university well and just seeing how close all of their sports teams were with each other it made the choice much easier,” Biagioli said. “I think it’s safe to say it is one of the best decisions of my life.”
When arriving at campus, Biagioli didn’t know what to expect. He was just one of two freshmen on the team last season and had little to no connections with the team.
However, he understood his role as a freshman and embraced it.
“Coming in I didn’t know many of the guys,” Biagioli said. “My expectations for my first year were pretty low but once I got comfortable with a good fall season, things kind of just fell into place.”
Biagioli came into the Bulldogs with an elite freshman season, claiming the GLIAC Freshman of the Year award and being an integral piece of Ferris making a run to the national tournament where they finished ninth in the country.
During his freshman year, he finished the season with an adjusted average of 72.5 over 37 total rounds, which was good enough to land him within the top 25 players in the region.
The success did not stop at the national tournament for Biagioli. Over the summer, he competed in the 113th Michigan Amateur Championship, the state’s most prestigious golf tournament. During the tournament, Biagioli came out victorious.
This was a pivotal moment in Biagioli’s career and one he looks back on with pride.
“Obviously there wasn’t many people expecting me to play good, let alone win,” Biagioli said. “I was only a freshman, I stayed within myself and let the course do its thing for me, it was an incredible honor.”
This accomplishment was also recognized by his peers, as junior teammate Drayton Cleaver believes that winning the Michigan Amateur is just the start for Biagioli.
“McCoy has put himself in the position to win big tournaments and succeed,” Cleaver said. “McCoy’s confidence has improved so much since last year which allows him to hit every single shot with confidence.”
This year, The Bulldogs have had a slow but consistent start. However, still being ranked within the top 40 in the nation and with Biagioli leading the Bulldogs during most tourneys, they are poised to make yet another deep run into the conference and regional tournament.
After Ferris’ season concludes, Biagioli will transfer to Michigan State University to continue his academic and athletic career and add to his trophy case as he pursues the professional card.