A decade of building the Arkansas Tech men’s golf program into a perennial national powerhouse under the direction of head coach Luke Calcatera culminated in the ultimate achievement in 2021 as the Wonder Boys won the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf National Championship.
 
The National Championship won by Calcatera and his 2020-21 Wonder Boys was the first men’s national title in Arkansas Tech history, and the first for the school as a member of the NCAA (dating back to 1995).
 
In the 10 years that Calcatera has now spent as head coach of the Wonder Boys’ golf team, winning a National Championship was truly one of the only remaining achievements alluding him and his program, but recent history had positioned both on the doorstep.
 
Entering the eventual 2020-21 National Championship season, Calcatera had led the Wonder Boys to a pair of Great American Conference Championships (2013 & 2019), made seven-straight NCAA Regional Tournaments and three-straight NCAA National Championship Tournament appearances. In each of the three NCAA National Championship runs, Calcatera guided the Wonder Boys to match play, advancing to the semi-finals in 2017.
 
Temporarily interrupting those impressive postseason streaks was the outset of COVID-19 and subsequent cancelation of spring sports in March 2020. Prior to that, the Wonder Boys appeared to be well on their way to continuing those streaks as they were ranked No. 6 nationally and had previously won the NCAA National Preview Tournament.
 
The impact of that initial abrupt end of the 2019-20 season lingered until the new year of 2021. As a result, the Wonder Boys did not tee off until the spring semester after their fall schedule was postponed due to COVID-19.
 
Despite the near year-long layoff, the Wonder Boys picked right up where they left off winning three of their first four tournaments of the year. In those three victories, the Wonder Boys out-shot their opponents by a combined 69 strokes. That momentum carried over the rest of the season and led to a dominant GAC Tournament Championship in which the Wonder Boys won by an eye-popping 13 strokes, giving the team their third GAC title overall and second-straight.
 
The conference championship assured the Wonder Boys of their eighth-straight NCAA Regional Tournament. At the regional, the Wonder Boys did what they needed to do to advance to their fourth-straight National Championship Tournament by finishing third in a 16-team field that featured 10 other nationally-ranked teams.
 
At the 2021 National Championship, the Wonder Boys held a lead after the opening round and then ended up finishing second overall in stroke play to advance once more to match play. In match play, the Wonder Boys, now ranked No. 4 nationally, took down No. 6-ranked Central Missouri 3-2-0 to advance to the semifinals later that day against No. 1-ranked West Florida.
 
Being in the semifinals for the second time under Calcatera, the 2021 Wonder Boys took another step forward and beat the top-ranked Argonauts 3-1-1 to advance the National Championship Match against No. 11-ranked Georgia Southwestern.
 
The match with Georgia Southwestern was close, but ultimately it was the Wonder Boys who emerged victorious 3-2-0, giving the program their first National Championship.
 
While any national title is undoubtedly special, this one resonates a little different and on a personal level for Calcatera as he has been around the program for nearly 20 years as both a player and a coach.
 
As a player, Calcatera played under legendary head coach Dave Falconer and was on the 2004 teams that won the Gulf South Conference Championship and played in that year’s NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament.
 
As a coach, Calcatera has made the Wonder Boys golf program one of the most consistent in the country. In each of the past five seasons, his Wonder Boys team has finished with a Top-20 national ranking according to GolfStat: No. 10 (2017), No. 10 (2018), No. 18 (2019), No. 6 (2020) and No. 2 (2021). In terms of coaching awards, Calcatera has been named the GAC Men’s Golf Coach of the Year five times and has been named the PING Central Region Men’s Golf Coach of the Year once as well as being a finalist for the GCAA Dave Williams Award for DII National Men’s Golf Coach of the Year.
 
Under Calcatera, a Wonder Boy has been named GAC Men's Golfer of the Year two times, with five players receiving GAC Freshman of the Year honors. Calcatera has also coached four different All-Americans in the past four seasons. Francois and Andre Jacobs both received the award in 2020. Austin Gean was named a GCAA Division II All-American in 2018 and 2019 and Shawn Tsai received the honor in 2019. Calcatera also has coached 30 all-conference selections and 13 all-region golfers.
 
A native of Keller, Texas, Calcatera is married to the former Ashley Duvall of Russellville, Arkansas. The two have three children, Josephine, Luke Jr and Dean. The five reside in Russellville.