College Corner: Emory Alum-Golfer Mike Lebow

A long life of sports keeps the body and mind healthy and strong. Spring-Ford alumnus Mike Lebow has certainly had a long life of sports. A 2002 graduate of , Lebow played all kinds of sports growing up. Unfortunately, he had to narrow his activity down, and he ended up taking his wrestling and golf careers very seriously at the high school level.

Lebow went on to wrestle and golf for Spring-Ford at the varsity level all four years. His talents in both sports led him to many successes and postseason appearances.

Lebow won two PAC-10 Championships in golf and finished third another time. He also went to the state championship tournament his senior year. Lebow explained that he could have won the regional tournament outright, but
"choked on the last couple of holes."

"It was a pretty successful golf career," Lebow said. "I really kind of picked it up sophomore year on."

In the winter, Lebow wrestled, and said that he was a better wrestler than golfer. Upon graduation, he had 50 career pins, as well as 106 career wins - the sixth most in Spring-Ford history at the time.

"I did really well there," he said. "I ended up making it to states my senior year and losing in double overtime before the medal round. I won districts three times and did well at regionals my senior year to get to states."

As his time at Spring-Ford came to a close, Lebow had some difficult choices ahead. He was being actively recruited by colleges in the local area for both wrestling and golf, but deep down, he knew he wanted to branch out and spread his wings.

He also was feeling a bit of burnout by the end of his high school wrestling career. So, Lebow made the decision to not pursue wrestling at the next level.

"I just kind of made the decision for quality of life," he said. "I had wrestled my whole life and had been losing a ton of weight each season. I got kind of burnt out with the weight loss and the three workouts a day and whatnot, so I decided to pursue golf as my collegiate sport."

Lebow also explained that he wasn't explicitly going to college to play a sport. He was going to take his education very seriously. He looked at schools like Georgetown, William & Mary, Washington University in St. Louis, and Richmond. In the end, the ideal school for Lebow was Emory University in Atlanta.

" Emory was just a dream fit for me with a top five undergrad business school and a golf team that was ranked in the top 10 in the country," Lebow said. Everything fell into place. It ended up being a perfect fit. I ended up playing really well in tryouts and made the varsity team from day one, and went on to get an outstanding education as well."

At Emory, Lebow was a four-year varsity player and a team captain his junior and senior years. He was a three-time Division III All-American and a four-time Academic All-American. He had one of the lowest scoring averages in Emory history during his junior season. He was ranked number one in the country that year for greens and regulation. To cap it all off, Lebow placed fifth in the national tournament his senior year.

He credited his family for many of his successes in golf. The Lebow family is known for their long-standing on Main Street in Royersford. Lebow's mother Patty is the head coach of the girls golf program at Spring-Ford.

"My grandparents golfed a lot," Lebow explained. "Both of my parents golfed as well. I think it was the combination of all of them that got me into the sport. They still like to joke about it - when I was really young, I was more interested in playing in the creek than playing golf, but by the time I was 12 or 13 I was really into the sport. Having the family around definitely had a huge impact."

Both of his parents caddied for him and supported him well over the course of his career.

After graduating Emory in 2006, Lebow moved to Denver to pursue a career in business development for a technology startup company. He changed his career path about two years later to head into the renewable energy field. He now spends his professional life doing development and project management work in the field with wind energy projects ranging from $40 million to $800 million in value.

"It's a fun industry," he said. "It's very exciting. I get to travel quite a bit around the West, including Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and a little bit of Nevada. I work with landowners, farmers, county commissioners and local, state, and federal government officials. I have a great quality of life out here in Denver, and I enjoy working on these exciting projects."

Lebow said finding a good place to ski, while also having a strong professional environment, was his original intention in moving to Denver after college. After that, his career flourished and he found a love for other sports like mountain biking, white water kayaking, hiking and climbing.

"Those outdoor adventure sports are things I never got into back in Pennsylvania," he said. "They’re one of the main reasons I plan to stay out here. The people are also great out here. It's a nice little bonus to have such a young, active environment."

While Lebow is enjoying his professional and recreational life in Colorado, he is considering going back to school to get his MBA. He recently applied to graduate school in the San Francisco Bay Area and said he would love to spend a few years out there if he were to get accepted.

"San Francisco is one of the few places I could see myself being happy outside of Denver," he said. "The combination of the educational and career opportunities, as well as the access to outdoor activities, makes it a perfect fit for me."

The one sport Lebow doesn't participate in out there is golf, which he said people are surprised to hear about. But he still reminisces about his time at home and is thankful for the people that were involved in his success.

"I really appreciated the coaches I had back home growing up: Coach [Tim] Seislove and Coach [Jeff] Mast.  It's always good to catch up with them when I'm back in town," he concluded. "I want to wish the best of luck to the Spring-Ford golfing and wrestling teams in the future."