Biography

When he started playing golf at the ripe “old” age of 12, Don Minor didn’t see himself making his living in the golfing business. It’s merely another classic example of how time can change things including one’s career path. “My parents started me playing golf, and it was just something fun to do” said Minor, who has guided Bonita Vista High School in Chula Vista, California to prominence among San Diego area schools. It wasn’t unusual to start at that age then. Today, that’s a very late age for a tournament golfer to start playing.

Not only did Minor come late to playing the game of golf, he came late to coaching it as well. Retired from the U.S. Navy after serving 27 years as a fighter pilot, he has become one of golf’s guiding forces in southern California. But Minor comes earlier than any other high school golf coach to national honors. The National High School Coaches Association is honoring Minor as its inaugural National High School Golf Coach of the Year for 1998.

The head coach at Bonita Vista High since 1995, Minor has continued the school’s excellence in the competitive San Diego Section. Bonita Vista has won six consecutive Metro League championships, and in 1996, qualified for the state championships with a second-place section finish as a team. That team went on to finish seventh in the state tournament. This year’s Bonita Vista squad went 13-1 in its first 14 dual meets. Though he started playing golf at a relatively late age, Minor showed an aptitude for the game. He played four years for his high school team, then earned three varsity letters at Oregon State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1965.

Upon graduation from college, Minor was accepted into the Navy’s flight training program. For the next 27 years, he would have no formal association with the sport. Minor earned his Navy pilot wings in 1967. By the time he retired in 1992 with the rank of Captain, he had racked up 5,500 flight hours and 849 carrier landings. Oh, by the way, accompanied by many rounds of golf. “I did get to play a lot of golf at some really beautiful courses all around the world,” Minor said. “Golf was fun. But that was the extent of my involvement with it.”

Then Minor landed with the San Diego County Golf Association. In 1994, he became the tournament director of the Junior World Golf Championships, the world’s oldest and largest international junior golf championship event. Last year’s event, the 31st Annual, attracted about 870 participants in four age divisions ranging up to age 17, including 250 from 35 foreign countries. American participants qualify through their state, while the majority of foreign contestants are selected by their respective golf governing bodies.

“The thing that makes the Junior Worlds unique is the extensive foreign participation,” Minor said. “We have state qualifying here, but you don’t see that in many foreign countries, where they pick who they want to attend. We have our first entry from Morocco this year, and that’s exciting.”

“The college coaches love it, too. The Junior World is their chance to see the elite golfers compete, not just from the United States, but from all over the world. Last year, we had the girls junior champion from Taiwan come to compete in the Junior Worlds, and she earned a scholarship and is now playing at a school here in the United States.” The Junior World Championships is just one of a myriad of events today available to junior-age golfers. “It’s amazing how many events there are now,” Minor said. “Even 10 years ago, there weren’t that many events. Now, you can go to an event every week if you want. Some parents say they budget as much as $15,000 per year for their son or daughter’s junior golf schedule. That’s a lot of money, but they look at it as an investment. If their child earns a college scholarship as a result of playing that schedule, then that investment has paid off.”

The effect of the enforcement of Title IX has been an increase in opportunities for girls “but not necessarily an increase in participation” and that is one of Minor’s challenges in his current full-time post as executive director of the San Diego County Junior Golf Association.

“Any decent girl golfer has an excellent chance of getting a scholarship just about any place,” Minor said. “There’s much more competition among the boys. If you look at our membership in San Diego County, in the 15-17 age group, we’ve got about 350 boys who are members, but only about 20 girls. I don’t know what the reason is. We’ve really tried hard to get the girls’ membership up, but it’s been tough.”

“There are so many quality boy golfers out there, there’s not enough room for all of them. The golf coach at Sacramento State is dividing up scholarships among the boys for 10 spots. But they can’t find enough girls to fill the 10 girls’ spots. They’ve never had 10 girls. “If I’d have been smart, I’d have had my daughter playing golf.” Minor’s military experience has more than compensated for his lack of teaching experience in working with high school golfers. “I had to work with many young sailors, many not much older than the high school golfers I coach now,” he said. “In both cases, you have a lot of control over their lives, that’s for sure. You have to motivate them to be mature, productive individuals. Golf is a game that teaches maturity. It’s a game of failure. Sometimes you’ll hit a bad drive, or three-putt a green, and you have to learn to just let it go, to concentrate on the next hole. Some kids with all the talent in the world never learn that. The ones that are successful are the ones that control their emotions through the good shots and the bad shots.” Minor’s actual path to the Bonita Vista position was aided by his involvement with his son Mark’s golfing career. Think Don started late Mark didn’t pick up a club until he was 13, in 1990. But, like father like son, Mark learned the game quickly. Today Mark is the No. 1 golfer at Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz, California.

When Mark was a golfer at Bonita Vista, the team needed scorekeepers, so Don was among the volunteers. When an assistant coach was needed, Don again came to the rescue. After two years on the staff, the head coach was transferred to another campus. Though school district personnel were given preference in hiring, no staff members expressed an interest.

So Minor was hired. It’s been a win-win situation all the way around. “Because of my involvement with the Junior Golf Association, it works out great for the school,” he said. “My dad tells me I’ve got the best retirement job in the world.”

Records

Coached 3 CIF State Championship Teams