The longest-tenured coach at Rutgers-Camden, Bob Cardea begins his 30th fall semester and 31st spring season with the Scarlet Raptors’ golf program during the 2025-26 scholastic year. Cardea, who started his Raptor coaching career with the 1995 spring semester team, has coached every semester since then, with a brief interruption in 2020 when Rutgers-Camden didn’t have a spring or fall season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During Cardea’s tenure, he has led the team from an independent program to a North Eastern Athletic Conference powerhouse and lately as a member of the United East Conference.
During the Scarlet Raptors’ 13-year tenure in the North Eastern Athletic Conference, from the 2008-09 season through the 2020-21 scholastic year, the NEAC held 12 championships, missing only during the Covid-19 spring of 2020. The Scarlet Raptors won eight of those NEAC titles (2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019) to qualify for the NCAA Division III Golf Championships each year. Rutgers-Camden finished second in the NEAC during the other four years (2011, 2012, 2018 and 2021).
Bob Cardea’s Rutgers-Camden record
During the spring of 2019, the Scarlet Raptors captured their eighth NEAC title, earning Cardea his sixth honor as the NEAC Coach of the Year. He also won that honor in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Topping off that accomplishment, Rutgers-Camden qualified for the final cut at the 2019 NCAA Division III Golf Championships for the first time in program history. The Scarlet Raptors finished 16th of the 42 teams that reached the NCAA Championships, carding a four-day total of 1,237 at the Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
Capping a banner season, the Rutgers-Camden program received the 2019 Mark Laesch Award for Division III, an honor that goes annually to the team recognized for the most improvement from one year to the next, based on adjusted stroke average per round. The recognition is awarded by a vote from the Golf Coaches Association of America.
Over their dominant run in the NEAC, Cardea’s program produced 55 All-NEAC players, including a pair of NEAC Golfers of the Year (Quentin Griffith in 2013 and Richard Stolz in 2019). During that time the Scarlet Raptors also featured 23 NEAC Scholar-Athletes and 42 NEAC Golfers of the Week.
Over the years, Cardea’s teams have produced five players who have been named Division III PING All-Mid Atlantic Region performers and also had six Raptors named to the Philly-SIDA or
Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Golf Team. The latest came during the 2024-25 scholastic year when Gloria Campos was the lone female named to the Philly-SIDA Academic All-Area Men’s Golf Team.
Since joining the United East Conference for the 2021-22 season, the team has seen Patrick DeMareo earn a pair of All-Conference First Team honors over his final two seasons, while also being named to the United East All-Sportsmanship Team both years. During four years in the United East Conference, Rutgers-Camden has produced eight United East Scholar Athletes and three Golfer of the Week honors. Rutgers-Camden finished third out of nine teams at the 2025 United East Men’s Golf Championship.
Cardea’s eight NEAC titles qualified Rutgers-Camden for the only eight NCAA Division III Golf Championship berths in program history. Prior to the 2019 spring season, the Raptors had their best national finish in 2016 when they placed 23rd at the NCAA Championships, led by Kevin Sarlo, who became the first player in program history to make the final cut at nationals and finished in a tie for 31st place. That same scholastic year of 2015-16 also saw Cardea’s team set a program record by winning six consecutive invitationals, beginning with the RU-Camden Scarlet Raptor Fall Golf Invitational to end the fall semester (Oct. 26, 2015) and stretching through five consecutive spring outings, culminating in the NEAC Championships (April 23-24, 2016). The Raptors nearly tied the six straight wins during the 2019 spring season, but finished second on matching cards at the Stevenson Invitational, despite tying for the top team score. They won five other invitationals sandwiched around that event.
In addition to his six NEAC Coach of the Year honors, Cardea was named Rutgers-Camden’s Coach of the Year during the 2012-2013 scholastic year. He also was Rutgers-Camden’s Co-Coach of the Year for 2009-2010.
During the 2016-17 scholastic year, both Zach Arsenault and Kevin Sarlo earned Division III PING All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors, sparking a yearly run for Scarlet Raptor golfers. Richard Stolz won that honor during both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 scholastic years and Sean Sigall added Division III PING All-Mid-Atlantic recognition during the abbreviated 2019-20 year.
Sarlo was named Rutgers-Camden’s Male Athlete of the Year for the 2015-16 scholastic year. One year after graduating from Rutgers-Camden, Arsenault competed in the U.S. Amateur in Pebble Beach, California (Aug. 13-19, 2018).
Cardea’s golfers also have captured another pair of impressive honors: Dave Taraschi received the prestigious ECAC Award of Valor during the 2008 fall semester and Sean Sanchirico earned the NEAC Inspirational Award during the 2015-16 scholastic year for his fight to overcome a brain tumor.
Cardea started coaching at the school during the 1995 spring season, continuing a family tradition. His late father, Don Cardea, coached the program from 1983-87. Bob Cardea is the longest-tenured golf coach in school history, continuing a long line of outstanding golf coaches at Rutgers-Camden that includes his father Don, Quentin Griffith III and Rutgers-Camden Athletic Hall of Famer Barry Millett.
Bob Cardea, who currently serves as the Vice Chair of the United East Golf Committee, has served on numerous NCAA and GCAA committees over the years, including as the chairman of the Mid-Atlantic and All-American Selection Committees.
Cardea has carried on the Scarlet Raptors’ storied success and taken it to a new level. That recipe for success started brewing in December 2007, when Cardea joined the staff on a full-time basis after years as a part-time coach. Another piece of the winning puzzle followed in June 2008, when the Camden County Golf Academy opened on Father’s Day, with Cardea serving as the manager. The facility, based in Pennsauken, gave the Scarlet Raptors a place to practice only minutes from the Camden campus. Cardea completed the puzzle when Rutgers-Camden joined the NEAC for the fall 2008 season, his 14th fall semester with the program. Instead of their status as an independent program, the Raptors finally had a clear ticket to the NCAA Championship if they could win the NEAC to earn the conference’s automatic qualifier.
After years as an independent program battling a lack of facilities, various injuries and other setbacks, the Scarlet Raptors rode the perfect storm to their first conference championship and first berth in the NCAA Division III Golf Championship during the 2009 spring semester. Along the way they set a single-semester record for wins (84 during the fall season) and had six players named to the all-conference team. That spring they won the conference title by a stunning 52 strokes, placed four players on the NEAC First Team (Dan Drazen, Ryan Cass, Dave Henry and Brett Hagen) and one apiece on the NEAC Second Team (Brian Herman) and Third Team (Chris Vassallo).
Cardea captured honors as the NEAC Coach of the Year and led his Raptors to their first appearance ever in the NCAA Division III Championship. They became the first Rutgers-Camden men’s team, in any sport, to earn an automatic NCAA post-season berth. Rutgers-Camden finished 31st at the 2009 NCAA Division III Golf Championship, which was held in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Cardea spent six years serving as the General Manager of Somerton Springs South Jersey Golf Campus in Sewell before becoming the Director of Golf Instruction of the South Jersey Golf Schools at the Parkville Golf Center in West Deptford. In January of 2004, he accepted the position as the Director of Golf Instruction at Town & Country Golf Links in Woodstown.
Cardea has since returned to the Somerton Springs site, which is now named Big Swing Golf Center. He serves as the Owner/Director of South Jersey Golf Schools.
A Cherry Hill resident, Cardea was a four-year golf letterman at Cherry Hill High School East, where he served as captain and led his team to a pair of state finals. He was a member of Wesley College’s Eastern College Athletic Conference championship team in 1988 before transferring to Towson State University. Cardea continued his golfing career at Towson State, and graduated from the school in December 1992, with a degree in Business Management.
Following college, Cardea attended the PGA Teaching School in West Palm Beach, Florida. He returned to Florida in February 1999, where he passed the United States Golf Teachers Federation professional test in Port St. Lucie. The certification process included 36 holes on the Saints Course at Club Med, a written rules test and a teaching test.
As a member of the USGTF, Cardea participated in his first USGTF National Championship in October 1999. The top six golfers at the event made the World Cup team.
