Last month, Natalie Desjardins stepped down as head coach of the women’s golf team to accept a new position as a director of junior golf at a training facility in Brooklyn, New York, Seton Hall’s Director of Athletics, Bryan Felt, announced in a university-issued press release.
After achieving success at Long Island University–Brooklyn as both a student-athlete and coach, Desjardins became the second head coach in the history of SHU’s women’s golf program in July 2017. Over the past eight seasons, she has led the Pirates to eight tournament team victories, all while coaching nine All-Big East selections, eight All-Tournament selections, and two student-athletes named Big East Rookie / Freshman of the Year. Her teams consistently finished in conference championship contention and were responsible for six of the top seven single-year scoring averages in program history.
Away from the course, Desjardins’ teams thrived in the classroom, with team cumulative GPAs being above 3.70 each year. The women’s golf team boasted the highest cumulative GPA of any athletic program at the university several times—their best academic year coming in 2023/2024 when the team earned a GPA of 3.850.
“I’d like to thank Natalie for her contributions to Seton Hall and all that she did to mentor and coach our women’s golf student-athletes for the last eight years,” Felt said in the press release. “Our women’s golf student-athletes have always been standouts in the classroom and on the course, and we appreciate Natalie’s efforts to develop them. We wish her all the best at her new position.”
Enter: Desjardins’ Mentee, Jackie Mullens
For a part of Desjardins’ tenure, Jackie Mullens served as a volunteer assistant coach from 2018 to 2021. On Aug.11, Felt and the Athletics Department made an announcement, stating that Mullens was named the new head coach of the program.
“We are excited to welcome Jackie back to the Seton Hall family to lead our women’s golf program,” Felt said in a press release. “Jackie’s familiarity with our team and extensive experience as an assistant coach makes her the ideal candidate to lead our program into a new era. We believe Seton Hall women’s golf is in good hands for years to come.”
Named her successor, Mullens said that having Desjardins as the first head coach she worked under was “a dream come true,” and that the two are still close to this day.
“The two of us just hit it off really quickly, and I consider her one of my good friends,” Mullens said, adding that the two talk “weekly, if not biweekly.”
“What I appreciate most about her is the trust that she had in me, even with me being a volunteer assistant coach,” Mullens added.
When it came to coaching, Mullens said she had a deep knowledge of the game, while Desjardins was skilled in recruiting and the mental aspects of the game, which is why she believes the duo worked so well as a team.
Growing up in Mendham, and Mullen’s Early Passion For Golf
Long before her first coaching stint with SHU, Mullens fell in love with golf at a young age, thanks to the influence of her father.
“My dad was a golfer, so he was the one that really got me into the sport—it started with the two of us playing together in my backyard, and then as I got older, he would take me to the golf course with him,” Mullens said.
“Around eight or nine years old, I started doing golf camps and taking lessons,” she continued. “And then as I got through middle school, I started playing in tournaments.”
She added that the sport runs in her family, and that “pretty much everyone” on her father’s side plays or has played—including her grandmother, who was a club champion at three different golf courses between New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida.
A Mendham, New Jersey native, Mullens played for both the girls and boys golf teams in high school.
“I got to play with some of the better players on the boys’ side, while still being able to compete for county, regional, and state titles on the girls’ side,” she said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Although she also played other sports while growing up in Mendham, Mullens said she gravitated to golf most of all.
“I played a lot of sports growing up, like softball, volleyball, and basketball,” she said. “But at the end of the day, I just loved golf the most because, one: you’re outside for a long time, which I enjoy.
“And two: every situation on the course is different—and you never hit the same shot twice,” she continued. “I equate each shot in golf to being a sort of ‘puzzle’ that you have to figure out the best way to execute, which is why I gravitated toward the sport.”
Mullens’ “Scarlet Sin”
Like Desjardins, Mullens also played golf at the collegiate level. After high school, she attended Rutgers University, where she was a four-year member of the golf team. She holds one of the best scoring averages in program history and finished No. 35 out of 83 players at the 2016 Big East Championship during her senior year.
“I really enjoyed my time as an undergrad at Rutgers,” she said. “It was definitely an adjustment for me in the beginning, but once I found my niche, got into more specific classes for my major [Exercise Science-Kinesiology], and had a great group of people around me, it made all the difference.”
Mullens said she got her first taste of coaching at Rutgers after graduating. During that summer, Mullens served as an event operations volunteer for the golf program she was once a member of, assisting with the university’s annual Unger-DeBlasio Cup and Rutgers Invitational tournaments.
“I really started my coaching career at Rutgers in that small capacity of helping them with those two events,” she said. “And after helping them for a year or two, coach Williams could really see that I was interested in coaching and that I wanted to get to the next level, and that’s when she got me in contact with Natalie Desjardins.”
After connecting with Desjardins, Mullens joined the staff of SHU’s women’s golf program as a volunteer assistant coach in 2018. Well aware of the rivalry between the university and her alma mater, Mullens acknowledged how controversial the nature of her status as a former Scarlet Knight was and continues to be—even going so far as to say that she “bleeds Scarlet red” rather than “Pirate blue.”
“At the end of the day, I’m a big sports fan in general, so I follow both universities and cheer both of them on,” Mullens said, concerning the rivalry between the two schools. “But I have to admit, at the end of the day, I am still a very big Rutgers fan—those that know me well enough would even say that I ‘bleed Scarlet.’”
Mullens’ First Stint with SHU
During Mullens’ tenure at SHU as a volunteer assistant coach, the Pirates won three tournament titles, including the Delaware Lady Blue Hen Invitational in October 2018—a preview of what was to come, unbeknownst to Mullens at the time.
She originally planned to stay at SHU only for a year or so before pursuing a paid position elsewhere, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which halted her plans—as it did for everyone.
“When COVID happened, the job market for coaching was almost non-existent as most colleges were in a hiring freeze,” Mullens said. “So I ended up staying at SHU for three years instead of a year or so, which is [not] what I originally intended on doing.”
Although not in her original plans, Mullens said that she was ultimately happy she got an extra season with SHU during her first stint with the program. Before their season ended prematurely due to the pandemic, the women’s golf team was ranked 54th in the country—the highest ranking in program history—and was a “shoo-in to win the Big East Championship,” Mullens said. Considering this, she said “it was nice to come back” after the canceled season and see the program resume operations before she pursued an opportunity elsewhere.
The University of Delaware and Mullens’ Development as a Coach
Motivated to pursue a new position where she could get more involved with the “administrative and recruiting side of coaching,” Mullens became an assistant coach at the University of Delaware (UD) in 2021. While also coaching the men’s program, Mullens helped lead the women’s program to four team tournament titles and five individual medalist honors during her tenure.
In November 2023, she was promoted to associate head coach of the women’s team. Her impact was felt almost immediately, as the Blue Hens won their third-ever Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Championship that same season.
Reflecting on her time with the university, Mullens said it “elevated her coaching” ability, and credited Director of Golf Patty Post with helping prepare her to become a head coach one day.
“I see my time at Delaware as one of growth and learning for myself,” she said. “I really emphasized with Post that I wanted to be a head coach someday, and she was great in including me in a lot of opportunities to prepare me for that role.”
Mullens’ Return to SHU and Praise for the University
Now back at SHU as a head coach, Mullens shared how she hopes to recreate the winning culture she helped build in her first coaching stint with the university and usher in a new period of success for the program.
“During my first coaching stint with SHU, we were a good team, and the girls were competitive with each other,” she said. “But they were also happy, which is the most important part of it.
“And so, as I take over the program, my goals are, one: to make sure that all the girls are happy and enjoying their experience,” she added. “And two: to foster the same competitiveness that the team that I worked with before had, and to hone in on the skills of our student-athletes so that they really feel like they can compete with anybody.”
Making sure her players are happy shouldn’t be a problem for Mullens, who said that her relationship with her student-athletes has always been “on the fun side,” especially during her time as an assistant coach.
“I think as an assistant coach, it’s kind of your job to bridge the gap between the student-athletes and the head coach,” she said. “So as I become a head coach for the first time this year, I’m excited to continue acting as that bridge between myself and the athletes, while knowing that my job has changed quite a bit.”
Mullens also mentioned how the nature of the sport itself—with its frequent multi-day trips, smaller rosters, and slower pace—lends itself to a more personal connection between coach and player, one that often borders on “friendship.” After the athletic department announced her hiring on Aug.11, Mullens said that several of her former athletes reached out to wish her well and express their excitement.
“I think the biggest thing is that college is a growth period for a lot of these kids,” she said. “You’re not only their coach and trying to help them in the sport, but you’re also kind of that adult figure for them while they’re away from their parents and family, often for the first time—and so I just want my student-athletes to enjoy their four years here, and look back on this time as a really enjoyable experience.”
Interestingly, the hiring of Mullens follows a recent trend in the university’s approach to staffing for its athletic programs: with her hiring, she becomes the third individual with ties to SHU to be named a head coach, following men’s basketball head coach Shaheen Holloway in 2022 and cross country head coach Jacob Simon earlier this summer.
Mullens said that this trend reflects the university’s confidence and trust in its alumni and former staff, and passion for its sports programs as well. She said she believes SHU’s sports programs are just as strong, if not even stronger than those of other, much larger schools.
“I think Seton Hall is a special place and the people that have been able to experience it understand that,” she said. “And so, having been a former coach here, I’m already familiar with the school, the resources we have, and the opportunity for success—which is why I think the university trusts me and others like me with this kind of position.”
“And then on top of that, the university also has such a loyal and passionate athletic department, alumni network, and fan base,” she added.
The Program’s Short- and Long-Term Goals
First year as head coach, Mullens said she hopes the team will be competitive in the Big East and in contention for a conference championship come April.
“Right now, we are the second or third-ranked team in the conference, which is a great position to be in, because sometimes being that number one team in the conference puts a lot of pressure on a team,” she said. “So I think our short-term goal is to just stay competitive within the Big East and to give ourselves a real chance at a conference championship at the end of the season.”
Looking toward the future, Mullens hopes for the team to eventually get back to competing in the NCAA Tournament—something she was able to do just last season at UD.
“After being able to experience an NCAA regional for the first time last season with Delaware, my long-term goal for this program is to have the Pirates represented in it,” she said. “Not everybody who plays college golf gets to experience that, and it’s really special.”
Ahead of the season, Mullens expressed how excited she is to return to SHU and help “elevate the program.”
“I’m really excited to get back to Seton Hall and to use the connections I made growing up and going to a college in New Jersey to really help elevate the team and program,” Mullens said.
Mullens and the women’s golf team will start their season at Forest Heights Golf Club in Statesboro, Georgia, for the Georgia Southern Invitational on Sept. 8.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor for The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
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