Isabel Wesman (iswesman@ursinus.edu)
This year’s fall season for Men’s and Women’s Golf was a little shorter than usual, but nevertheless ended up being surprisingly sweet despite various setbacks. As covered earlier this year in The Grizzly, the teams faced a new set of challenges after learning that their former head coach had resigned about three weeks prior to the new season set for early September. This unanticipated announcement prompted an almost eight weeklong search for a new coach, and when September came around and the position was still not yet filled, the golf teams were left to practice and coordinate all of their logistics on their own.
And they were perseverant! In hopes that they’d be able to resume competing, the golf teams kept their spirits up and did everything they could to keep their program running. During that time multiple candidates for the head coach position were going through rounds of interviews, and one even came to campus and met with the team captains, but both teams still needed a concrete authority figure
that could dedicate the time necessary to managing and coaching them. Player Elliot Schott looks back on this time, recounting, “I was definitely worried about the rest of our season. We have good leadership on our team, but it was difficult to even be able to set up practice times at courses.” The lack of a coach was no one’s fault, but it meant that scheduling, coaching, and managing duties all fell on the sophomore and junior players who at most had experience as captains.
However, the golf teams were able to start competing in late September and made do throughout almost their whole season with the help of their peers. One week before the season ended on October 18th, Matt Reed was officially hired as the new head golf coach to oversee the men’s and women’s teams. I reached out to Team Captain Kaylin Chen to follow up on this development. She noted that while the team was able to grow through the adver- sity, making “a lot of decisions on [their] own, getting closer together, and learning new skills like leadership and collabora- tion,” the fulfillment of the vacant position made all the difference in the season, and the coach “has done a lot already, working on getting the teams a store and sponsor- ships” along with all of the other manage- rial responsibilities that the student players did not know much about.
With this weight lifted off their shoul- ders, the team was able to focus on skill building for the rest of the season. Coach Reed noted to the Ursinus Athletics de- partment that he looks forward to building “a competitive, successful program for years to come” and it looks like both the men’s and women’s teams are only headed upwards from here. The fall season has now come to a close after about a month of competition, but this is not the end of their story. Golf ’s Spring season is coming up in March.
Golf ’s fall season is almost a precursor to the slightly longer, more heavily weighted Spring season, and so the Bears have a lot to look forward to next semester. Not only will they have Coach Reed with them every step of the way, but the season will be able to start right as scheduled, practices and competitions will run more smoothly, and the players will be able to focus on playing and supporting each other rather than ordering uniforms and scheduling their own practices. About next spring, everyone seems to have high hopes. Schott commented, “I am very excited for the season. I think we have built a good team dynamic, and we have a lot of time to pre- pare for Spring.” We are so excited to see what’s in store for Golf, and we wish them much success as they close this chapter of challenges, and open another one of possibilities.