UNLVREBELS.COM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Student - Athlete Academic Services ( Baseball, M. Golf, W. Golf, W. Soccer )
Job Titles:
- Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology for the UNLV School of Medicine
Guadagnoli is a professor of neuroscience and neurology for the UNLV School of Medicine. He will develop and execute the school's "Intersession" program, which provides medical students with resources for effective learning and performance strategies, communication and life skills, and specialized medical curricula. All of which are woven into the culture of medical school from its students to faculty to administration.
His primary line of research is related to the Challenge Point Framework, which has been used to optimize learning and performance for athletes, corporate executives, medical professionals, students and others who compete in high performance situations. His model of learning shows appropriate short-term challenges can result in long-term and stress resistant learning.
Dr. Guadagnoli has published more than 100 articles and abstracts and is the author of two books, Human Learning: Biology, Brain, and Neuroscience and Practice to Learn, Play to Win. His work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, Golf Digest, and has appeared in media on the History Channel and CBS Sports. Dr. Guadagnoli has lectured at several universities including Harvard University, MIT, UCLA, and USC. He presented the Challenge Point Framework and other work in countries such as Canada, China, France, Germany, and Scotland.
Dr. Guadagnoli has also worked in performance optimization with athletes of the USA Olympic Elite Track and Field Coaches, PGA, and LPGA.
He received his undergraduate and MS degrees at Texas A&M University, and PhD at Auburn University (Human Performance: Cognitive Psychology). He specializes in optimizing performance, communication, leadership, and learning in academia and industry (e.g., Zappos). He has received numerous awards including Student of the Year, Teacher of the Year, Faculty of the Year, and Researcher of the Year.
He is also considered an expert is the areas of memory and cognition, optimized learning and performance, and information processing and attention.
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Special Assistant to the AD
A two-time National Coach of the Year and 2002 GCAA Hall of Fame inductee, Dwaine Knight has been the driving force behind the tremendous success of Rebel Golf since his arrival in Las Vegas in the fall of 1987.
Knight, who is in his 33rd season at the helm of the UNLV men's golf program, has nurtured Rebel golf from near-anonymity to one of the premier programs in the nation. In 1998, he guided the Rebels to their first-ever NCAA crown in Albuquerque, N.M.
Knight has taken the Rebels to an unprecedented 22 trips to the national finals and coached them to 11 top-eight finishes. Additionally, he has led his team to a current NCAA-record 31 straight appearances at the NCAA Regionals.
Under his tutelage, the Rebels earned their first-ever No. 1 ranking in 1993 and following the 1997-98 season, the team finished No. 1 in the nation in all polls.
A true teacher of the sport, Knight has tutored 47 All-Americans at UNLV, a National Player of the Year, a National Freshman of the Year, a U.S. Amateur Champion, three U.S. Public Links Champions, four Walker Cup participants and eight Palmer Cup representatives. Additionally, three former Rebel golfers have gone on to play for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup.
Knight has captured three national titles (one team championship and two individuals), has won eight conference championships (including a recent streak of three straight) and has developed 87 all-conference players. Since 1998, Knight has helped 17 Rebel golfers earn the All-America Scholar award and four have been named Academic All-Americans.
"I am very proud of what we have accomplished at UNLV in my time here," Knight said. "I can remember the first time we qualified for nationals (in 1989) and how excited we were just to make it there. Now I feel that we have moved to the next level where our players expect to go to nationals and are ready to compete for the national championship every year.
On July 1, 2022, Jean-Paul Hebert (pronounced "A-bear") became just the third full-time head coach in the proud history of the UNLV men's golf program. He enters his third season at the helm in 2024-25.
In his second season as head coach (2023-2024), Hebert led the Rebels back to familiar territory when they made their first NCAA Regional appearance in five years and 32nd trip overall. Since taking the reins of the UNLV program, Hebert has also coached his student-athletes to one Mountain West Golfer of the Year (Caden Fioroni - 2022-23) honor, three All-Mountain West selections and an NCAA Regional individual qualifier with Caden Fioroni competing as an individual in the first-ever Las Vegas Regional in 2023.
Hebert came to Las Vegas after serving as the assistant men's golf coach at the University of Texas for eight years, as well as for four years prior to that as the team's volunteer coach. In those 12 years, he helped lead the Longhorns to two National Championships (2012 & 2022), two national runner-up finishes (2016 & 2019), 42 team wins, 32 individual victories, and five Big 12 Conference Championships. He was named the nation's top assistant in 2020 when he earned the Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award, after having spent four years with two-time Masters Champion and current No. 1-ranked player in the world Scottie Scheffler.
"I've had some great opportunities in the game of golf, and coaching here in Las Vegas is certainly one of those," Hebert said. "And to know that I'm only the third coach in the history of our program is humbling at least, and a reminder of the pride and the strength of our history."
Job Titles:
- Title / Associate Head Coach
Philip Rowe is in his sixth year with the UNLV men's golf program. He arrived to assist the Rebels in 2014 and was promoted to associate head coach in June of 2017. Prior to coming to Las Vegas, he spent four years as assistant coach for the men's golf program at Stanford, his alma mater.
"I am very excited to have Philip on our staff," UNLV head men's golf coach Dwaine Knight said. "He came to us from one of the very elite programs in the country where he was a player as well as an assistant coach. He not only brings a wealth of playing knowledge, skill and accomplishment, but also outstanding credentials in recruiting both domestically and worldwide."
Rowe was instrumental in helping UNLV get back to the top of the Mountain West, winning its first conference championship in 14 years in 2016. The program again won the conference title in 2017, then captured the NCAA West Lafayette Regional championship. It marked just the second time in program history winning the league and NCAA Regional titles in the same season. That year's team went on to make an Elite Eight appearance at the NCAA Championship.
Spencer Dunaway joined the UNLV men's golf coaching staff as an assistant coach in July 2023.
Dunaway comes to Las Vegas after serving in the same role at Utah for the 2022-23 season. During that stint, he helped lead the Utes to six top-10 finishes, the program's second-highest individual finisher at a Pac-12 Championship and an individual NCAA Regional qualifier.
Prior to Utah, Dunaway began his coaching career in 2021 at Utah Tech. In his lone season with Trailblazers, the men's golf team posted three top-10 finishes, highlighted by a fifth-place outing at the Southern Utah Pizza Hut Pat Hicks Invitational Open.
A former student-athlete, Dunaway played four years of collegiate golf at BYU, where he finished his career with one win (2020 San Diego State Coronado Invitational), a 73.89 career scoring average, nine top-20 finishes and three top-five outings. Additionally, Dunaway won the 2021 Hawaii State Amatuer title, was a two-time Utah State Amateur semifinalist and qualified for the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach in 2018.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director, Compliance Camps & Clinics Primary Liaison: BASE, SB, M / WGO
Will Gaines arrived in Las Vegas in August of 2024 and is currently serving as an Assistant Director of Compliance. He serves as the day-to-day compliance liaison for Baseball, Softball and Men's and Women's Golf.
Prior to his arrival in Las Vegas, Gaines served as the Director of Baseball Operations at the University of Arizona from 2021-2024. While at Arizona, he was responsible for planning all aspects of team travel as well as managing the daily operations of the baseball program. The Wildcats won the PAC12 Regular Season Championship and Tournament Championship in 2024.
Gaines graduated from the University of Arizona in 2017 with a Bachelor's degree in Communication and a minor in Sport Management. He is a native of San Diego and the son of Bill and Pauline Gaines.