Jay Rowell will be in his third full season as the men’s and women’s golf coach at Illinois College in 2026-27. 

The 2025-26 season saw the women’s program finish fourth at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and two members of the Lady Blues squad earn postseason honors. Macie Petropoulos was named the league’s Newcomer of the Year and was joined on the second-team all-conference squad by Emily Guest. The men’s team placed seventh at the league meet.

During his first full season in 2024-25, Rowell helped the Blueboys to a fourth-place finish at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, after being picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll. Three Blueboys earned all-conference honors after the season.  On the women’s side, the Lady Blues also finished fourth at the SLIAC championships, while posting the lowest 54-hole team total in program history, and a pair of IC players were honored by the league.

Rowell, who has been a member of the IC athletics department over the past six seasons, stepped in to lead the golf programs on an interim basis in the spring of 2024 before being promoted to the position full-time. During his interim period, the Blueboys set four school records while the Lady Blues won two of the five tournaments they participated in.

Along with his golf duties, Rowell also spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Blueboys’ men’s basketball program. Highlighting his time on the Blueboys' men's basketball staff have been back-to-back Midwest Conference championships, a pair of berths in the NCAA Tournament, and the program's first NCAA Tournament victory in 2024. 

Before coming to the Hilltop, Rowell spent the 2018-19 season at Knox as an assistant coach.
 
Rowell is a United States Air Force veteran with seven years of service who was awarded the Air Force Meritorious Service Award.