Sebens leaving Parkland for D-I opportunity

CHAMPAIGN — Corbin Sebens has spent the past four years with an eye on taking the next step in his coaching career.

Basically do for himself what he did for numerous Parkland College golfers and use the Cobras’ success to springboard him to the Division I level.

Sebens had several interviews in that span, including with some SEC and ACC programs. The result was always the same. The assistant coach who was hired was typically a former player or someone with ties to the program.

But Sebens wasn’t deterred. The Monticello native and Parkland and Eastern Illinois graduate wants to run his own Division I men’s golf program, and he was ready to take the next step to achieving that goal.

After several years of missed opportunities, Sebens found himself weighing several options during the last couple weeks.

A chance to be an assistant at Charleston — this past season’s CAA champions — stood out above the rest.

“My goal is to be at the highest level, and it kind of got to the point we’ve accomplished everything we can at Parkland,” Sebens told The News-Gazette on Monday night. “I was ready for that next step and ready to move on and write my next chapter.”

A chapter Sebens didn’t know he’d be writing until a couple weeks ago. A recommendation from new LSU coach Jake Amos, who Sebens got to know during Amos’ time at East Tennessee State, to Charleston coach Mitch Krywulycz held weight. Krywulycz, who won two NCAA titles at Augusta State as a player and has been at Charleston since the 2018-19 season, got Sebens to South Carolina and sold him on the opportunity.

“You can’t beat the weather there,” Sebens said. “They have access to some incredible facilities. They play Kiawah Ocean Course once a week. They play a top, top schedule, and they’re a top 40 program. It was kind of an easy decision compared to the other two I had offers from.”

Sebens announced he was leaving Parkland on Sunday. He’ll depart for South Carolina on Thursday, where he’ll start getting prepared for the 2024-25 season with the Cougars. Charleston returns three of its top five golfers from last season, including South African senior Kieron van Wyn — the 2022 and 2023 CAA Golfer of the Year — and the Dutch duo of Nevill Ruiter and Loran Appel.

“I’m ready for the challenge,” Sebens said. “I’m ready for a new change. I just think being able to coach at the highest level and play against some of the best programs in the country on a weekly basis at some of the top tournaments in the country, that’s what I’m excited about. Go down there and start a new journey, next chapter, with a new set of guys and do whatever I can to help them and see if we can bring more championships back to Charleston.”

Sebens said Krywulycz is on board with helping him learn as much as he can as a coach so he’ll be ready to lead his own Division I program someday. Until then, Sebens feels like he can bring the same kind of winning mentality he helped develop at Parkland to the Cougars.

There was plenty of it with the Cobras. Parkland won 51 tournaments in Seben’s 11 seasons as coach, including an NJCAA Division III national championship in 2021. That was part of seven straight top-six finishes at nationals that helped produce 16 NJCAA All-Americans and 37 M-WAC all-conference honorees.

“We’ve done a lot of great things — won a lot of tournaments, won the program its first national championship,” Sebens said about his time at Parkland, both playing and coaching with the Cobras. “But, more importantly, the guys we’ve been able to bring in, the relationships we’ve been able to build and play a part in their journey moving them on to the next level is really important to me. When I took over, my goal was to, hopefully, leave the program in a better place than when I started. Hopefully, we can say that we did that.”