Joe Powell begins his eighth season at Buena Vista in 2026-27 and his sixth as the Director of Golf Operations where he oversees both the women's and men's golf programs. He joined the staff as head men's golf coach in the summer of 2019.
WOMEN'S GOLF
Powell has guided the women's golf team to an improved score at the American Rivers Conference Championships in each of the last five years while posting a top-5 finish in each of the last three. BVU's conference tournament finish in 2024 was its best over the last 18 years when the team turned in its lowest score (320) and its highest team finish (4th of 9) over that span.
Powell has coached three all-conference selections as well as one Honorable Mention performer which marked the program's first all-conference honors since 2019. To close out its spring schedule in 2025, the Beavers captured their first team title under Powell by winning the Simpson College Spring Invite.
The 2024-25 group also excelled off the course by being awarded the WGCA All-Scholar Team GPA Award (ranked 15th in all Division III, 3.74 GPA) and earned BVU's Highest Team GPA Award among its women's sports team for four straight years. Overall, Powell has coached 17 academic all-conference selections.
MEN'S GOLF
In 2026, Powell guided the Beavers to their highest conference team finish in 14 years (fifth) and was only one stroke back of fourth. In the fall, the team broke a school record with a round of 285 which was highlighted by an indivudal round of 67 - which is the program's lowest in at least the last 32 years.
In 2025, Powell led the Beavers to their best overall team finish at the conference championships in over a decade when it placed sixth. The team closed out the championships with a final round 307 to mark its best single round in the championships in 15 years. Also among the season highlights was the program's first individual medalist honor since 2015 and an overall team runner-up finish.
Prior to Powell's arrival, the program's last all-conference performer came back in 2012. He has coached three all-conference performers (2021, 2023, 2025) and has led the team to five top-seven overall team finishes at the A-R-C Championships. Since 2022, the team has improved its scoring average by 24.4 strokes and set the program's 36-hole (591) and 18-hole (287) tournament scoring records in Fall 2023. Powell has also coached a total of 10 Academic All-Conference selections.
Powell's first season on campus saw the 2020 spring conference season canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He did guide the Beavers during four team outings that fall which included a pair of top-2 team finishes. Those four events covered 6.5 total rounds, as BVU ranked fifth in the American Rivers Conference in team scoring average.
ADDITIONAL INFO
During the summer of 2020, while also working as the Director of Golf at the Buena Vista University Golf Course at Lake Creek, Powell was instrumental in bringing back the Lake Creek Amateur Tournament following a seven-year hiatus. The event had previously served as one of eight tournaments to determine the Iowa Amateur Golfer of the Year from 1975-2013. In the summer of 2021, the BVU at Lake Creek Golf Course was voted as the Iowa Golf Association Golf Course of the Year.
Prior to coming to BVU, Powell spent two seasons as a graduate assistant women's and men's golf coach at the University of Dubuque where assisted in recruiting, developing, training and game management for both programs as well as coordinating the social media accounts for each. He helped lead the women's squad to a runner-up finish in 2018 at the American Rivers Conference Championship where three Spartans finished in the top-10. He also assisted in leading the men's program to a fourth-place finish in the spring of 2019.
Before taking on his roles at the University of Dubuque, Powell was the Tournament Coordinator for the Illinois Junior Golf Association during the summer of 2017 where he implemented daily junior golf tournaments throughout the Midwest for 50 to 150 players. He was responsible for the course set up, hole locations, rules officiating, scoring and awards.
Powell was a collegiate golfer himself, starting at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., where he was a National Junior College Athletic Association national tournament qualifier in 2014 and named first team all-region. He continued to play when moving on to Quincy University where he completed his playing career in 2017. While at Quincy, Powell was captain of his team and also received the Council of Presidents' Academic Excellence Award in 2017.
He earned his associates in science degree from Parkland in May 2015 before going on to receive his bachelor of science degree in business management from Quincy in May 2017.
Powell's wife, Annika, is an assistant coach for both the BVU women's and men's golf teams. The couple resides in Storm Lake with their daughter.
