The Kansas State men’s golf team added a player with ample experience to its 2024-25 roster on Wednesday with the signing of Kobe Valociek.
Valociek, a native of Peoria, Arizona, joins the Wildcats after spending the previous four seasons at Virginia Tech. He will have one year of eligibility remaining, utilizing his extra year as eligibility clocks were frozen during the 2020-21 season.
“We are very excited to add Kobe to our program this fall,” said head coach Grant Robbins, who will be entering his 11th year at K-State this coming fall, in a written statement. “He is not only a tremendous player, but he is a great person that will be a terrific fit both on and off the course. We got to see him first hand at the Steelwood Collegiate last fall, and he really impressed me with not only his overall game but how poised he was throughout the final round in securing the win. He has a lot of leadership qualities and is someone that will make an immediate impact in our lineup.”
Ranked as high as 45th nationally this past season, Valociek led the Hokies with a 72.49 scoring average, thanks in part to his victory at the Steelwood Collegiate last October — an event the Wildcats competed in – with a 54-hole score of 11-under par 205. Valociek also led the Hokies with 16 rounds of either even- or under-par golf, which included a 6-under par 66 in the final round of the Steelwood Collegiate.
In addition to his victory at the Steelwood Collegiate, Valociek also earned a top-10 showing in the Visit Knoxville Collegiate when he tied for sixth place at 6-under par 204, while he earned a pair of top-20 finishes in the Palmetto Intercollegiate (T18th) and Seahawk Intercollegiate (T20th).
Just like K-State’s Cooper Schultz, Valociek was rewarded for his play throughout the 2023-24 season with an individual bid into the NCAA Austin Regional, the first postseason appearance of his career.
During his junior season of 2022-23, Valociek finished second on the team with a 72.97 scoring average and two top-20 finishes while earning All-ACC Academic Team and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-America Scholar honors.
Valociek was a four-year letterwinner at Liberty High School, winning the district championship in 2019 in addition to earning top-five finishes at the JGAA Fall Classic and the AJGA Under Armour/Alison Lee Championship.
Valociek joins a Wildcat squad that returns each of the top three members of their lineup in terms of scoring average, including Schultz, who ranked third in school history with a 71.12 mark this past season.
