Carter Cheves - Head Coach - Staff Directory - James Madison University Athletics

Staff Directory

Carter Cheves

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
Phone:
540-568-6693
Physical Address:
Bridgeforth B111 (250 Champions Dr.) / MSC 2301

Carter Cheves completed his fifth season as the head men's golf coach at James Madison in 2024-25. During his tenure as head coach, he has led the program to numerous school and individual records and has overseen the school's transition to the Sun Belt Conference.

In his fifth season as head coach in 2024-25, Cheves helped junior Václav Tichý produce the third-lowest single-season stroke average (71.50) in program history and a Second Team All-Sun Belt selection. Tichý also shot an eight-under 62 in the second round of the JT Poston Intercollegiate, a program record. Under his tutelage, Daniel Cheng also finished his career with the second-most birdies (417) in school history along with the third-lowest career stroke average (72.54).

JMU finished the 2024-25 season in fifth place at the 2025 Sun Belt Conference Championship, its best finish since joining the league in 2022-23 and best since a third place finish in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in 2021.

In 2023-24, junior Daniel Cheng was named Second Team All-Sun Belt after finishing with the seventh-highest scoring average in program history (72.28). The season was highlighted by a tie for first at the VCU Shootout, while also finishing second two more times.

2022-23 saw James Madison transition to the Sun Belt, where the Dukes finished eighth at the 2023 Sun Belt Championship.

The 2021-22 season saw JMU post the fourth-lowest single-season team scoring average in program history. Senior Ignacio Montero was also named Second Team All-CAA, giving the Dukes all-conference nods in back-to-back seasons.

Cheves returned to the program he helped build for the 2019-20 season, serving as Associate Head Coach, guiding the Dukes as they broke the JMU record for single-season team scoring average (285.46, -2.04) before seeing the season unfortunately cut short by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In all, the Dukes combined to post five of the 12 best individual seasons in program history that season, led by George Heath's 71.67 (-0.21), one of just three single-season scoring averages under par ever recorded at JMU.

In Cheves' first stint on the coaching staff at JMU, as an assistant coach from 2013-18, the Dukes earned 13 All-Colonial Athletic Association honors as he served as the program's recruiting coordinator.

In all, JMU racked up eight team wins across Cheves' five seasons as an assistant coach, breaking nearly all of the program's scoring records along the way. The Dukes racked up 52 rounds of par-or-better across his tenure after tallying only 46 such rounds in the 15 years prior.

In 2018-19, Cheves served as the head coach at Ohio, leading a young Bobcats squad to a trio of top-five finishes and a t-6th performance at the 2019 MAC Championship. Cheves was also the head coach at Western Carolina for three seasons prior to his first stint at JMU, guiding J.T. Poston, his first signee at WCU, to individual qualification to NCAA Regionals.

Cheves graduated from UNCW in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. Prior to UNCW, he played for two years at NC State under legendary Wolfpack head coach Richard Sykes.

Carter Cheves Coaching File

Alma Mater

UNC-Wilmington (2006)

Coaching Experience

2008-09	Assistant Coach, Western Carolina
2009-12	Head Coach, Western Carolina
2013-18	Assistant Coach, James Madison
2018-19	Head Coach, Ohio
2020-present	Head Coach, James Madison