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High School Golf Thread

Jman

Jman

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I'm sure there is an older thread somewhere, but I think a new one is fitting.

Not a lot of those involved with or around HS golf here that I know of, but still I think it would be cool to have a thread for those who are to discuss things (as well as for anyone else to jump in and converse).
 
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I'll be taking over the Boys HS Golf program at the school where I teach, finally, this year. There have been a lot of bumps on the road to getting this job finally, but we made it.

Boys and Girls programs are pretty much in shambles from what they should be, both have multiple championships and a plethora of all-staters as well. Part of it was the local Country Club collapsing from a beautiful little Perry Maxwell designed course which hosted some impressive events over the decades to the point of literally having to chip over dead spots in the greens. Luckily, a local family purchased it, and have sunk a LOT into bringing it back, its once again going to be a beautiful and challenging little track. Add to that, the coach prior to me was a basketball coach collecting a check for golf, one who literally went to the clubhouse at practice and tournaments and asked to be left alone, besides not doing ANY fund-raisers in a non school funded program for the last 3 years of course.

So, taking over was more daunting than I ever thought it would be. Luckily, we have had a couple stellar fundraisers with one more to go, have engaged parents, and a course that is bending over backwards for us and our kids. Add into that the girls coach is just as passionate about fixing the program as I am (she was a 2x state champion here so that helps) and things are starting to come together.

Girls have only 5 in a 4A school, but the team qualified for state last year and are predominantly Juniors. As for the boys, I had 13 in my meeting today and there is one more who I am trying to get to come back out (qualified as a freshman, stopped playing as a sophomore and won 3-4 medals in state track, hahaha), mostly underclassmen, no seniors. There's a low 70's stick in there, probably a couple that can break 80 consistently by the end of the year, and then some mid 80's kids.

Practice starts this week for us, if its 45* or above, we are getting out there. Its exciting really, granted there are a LOT more housekeeping things than realized, but it will be worth it I think. I'm being challenged again and have a chance to make a difference again, which is exciting in its own right. Plus, lets face it, the kids are getting someone who knows a thing or two about the game, and that in itself is already better than what they have had the last 3 years.
 
Congrats on getting the gig, I know it has been in the works for you for a while.

I volunteer during the summer at my little county course for the Junior Golf program and always looking for ideas, drills and just general knowledge. I will definitely be following along with this thread.
 
Just keep it fun for them.My nephew is varsity high school golf and they demand all him in winning only.Winning being the only outcome.I disagree totally with what he tells me,should just be a sport to learn and play for the rest of your life.His coach has a football mentality and acts like a real Richard to the kids.
 
Congrats James. These kids do not even realize how lucky they are to have you. You will do wonders with this program


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Chip said:
Just keep it fun for them.My nephew is varsity high school golf and they demand all him in winning only.Winning being the only outcome.I disagree totally with what he tells me,should just be a sport to learn and play for the rest of your life.His coach has a football mentality and acts like a real Richard to the kids.
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HS golf is crazy cutthroat competitive in general, we see a lot of that especially in our class which is littered with Private schools at the top.

That said, I coached football, track, wrestling, and baseball for about 12 years of my life, believe me we will keep it fun. But, there will be expectations, there has to be.
 
Sounds like a great thing to do and also help turn the program around. Good to see the CC getting a new lease on life also.


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Good luck Jman! When I was in H.S. our first coach was just earning a paycheck, too. Riding it out until retirement, which he did. The start of my Junior year we finally got a coach worth a darn, who played in college and knew the game. However, he didn't care to help, just wanted to be our friend and he knew who his varsity team was. So, all we did was go out and play 9 holes after school and a few of us (myself included) would play 18 instead. We'd have qualifying, because we had to, but it was the Top 4, plus which ever Sophomore or Freshman could shoot well enough to come near our scores.

It's crazy now, I'll go home on a Friday and see the H.S. team out practicing. I'll find a group and ask to join. They see I know what I'm doing and though talking, I find that most of them don't know the game really well. Simple things like playing to your stronger clubs and distances, or using your ball to line up a line on a putt. Where is you're Coach? Sad thing is, I usually know the Coach, since my hometown is a small town and my Mom was a H.S. teacher for a number of years before retiring.

I know you won't be that kind of Coach, and I envy you that you have his opportunity to help them way more than they know.

Good luck, have fun and teach these kids the game the correct way, which I know you will.
 
Jman said:
believe me we will keep it fun. But, there will be expectations, there has to be.
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This is the perfect way to express it.
 
This should be a great thread, thanks for starting it.

I help with our school golf teams a lot. I'm actually the band director, but I live on our home course and spend a lot of time with the pro and our golf coach. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the golf coach, he is truly top shelf. Like your situation, the course and pro are really good to our program as well.

I love getting to help with their practices and see kids improve and learn to love the game. The golf coach (same for boys and girls at our small school) has a state championship and several runner-up titles behind him, and just does a fantastic job motivating the team.

Best of luck on the gig, I know your kids will appreciate your passion for and knowledge of the game.
 
I said it before and will again good luck this year and the team and school is lucky to have you coaching this team. Will be here supporting and cheering for you guys.
 
Wish I could go back to my high school golf years. Gosh was that a fun time!

Best of luck this season Jman.
 
Glad you decided to take the position in the end. I think you will do wonders for those girls and boys.

I have such fond memories of my HS golf, from practicing with team mates to the tournaments and then just playing for fun till the sun went down and I'd look down at my watch wondering if I was going to be in trouble for missing dinner.

Question: Do you kiddos on the team take lessons on the side? How many of them are actually "working" on their game when it's possible?
 
Nate said:
Glad you decided to take the position in the end. I think you will do wonders for those girls and boys.

I have such fond memories of my HS golf, from practicing with team mates to the tournaments and then just playing for fun till the sun went down and I'd look down at my watch wondering if I was going to be in trouble for missing dinner.

Question: Do you kiddos on the team take lessons on the side? How many of them are actually "working" on their game when it's possible?
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I've got 2 who traditionally take lessons and 3 other freshmen who are looking around for a teaching pro they like, which is nice. Only a couple at the moment are going out and doing things on their own time to time, pretty much all of my kids are multi-sporters which makes it incredibly hard.
 
Jman said:
I'll be taking over the Boys HS Golf program at the school where I teach, finally, this year. There have been a lot of bumps on the road to getting this job finally, but we made it.
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Awesome! Good Luck, man! I assistant coached a high school here for 3 seasons about 6-7 years ago. My good friend was the head coach. I didn't know what to expect going in, but it ended up being really cool teaching these kids what I knew & seeing them improve. I actually still talk to & golf with a few of the kids pretty frequently. It's pretty cool to think that I made some sort of impression on them & can consider them friends on an adult level now.
 
My son made the JV team as a freshman last summer. He had only played a few times and attended golf summer camps the last couple years.
He went to tryouts right after the week of camp wrapped up and was basically one of the last guys kept on JV. They practiced for a few weeks in late July, early August then had about a 6 week season. He'll need to step his game up for next year there is a couple 8th graders that were good on the are middle school team, including one who won the SW Ohio tournament at the end of the season.

I think there will be a new coach this year and I would like to help out in any way. So many of the kids struggled just getting around and keeping score/following the rules. My son said he had fun so we'll prepare a little more and make a go at it again this year. He's not a very natural athlete but at 6'2" and 14 years old he has a ton of potential.
 
Good luck with it, cut throat is an understatement. My daughter beat out a junior to make varsity as a freshman, to say it has gotten ugly doesn't do ugly justice.

Have fun James, be fair and objective.
 
Good luck, buddy, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your experiences. I'm going to be assisting with the prep school golf team at the junior college I work at. A good friend of mine just got the head job and asked if I would come out and help for free golf and a little swag. The junior college is about to get a golf program and they are in the process of getting an indoor putting green installed, as well as a launch monitor or golf sim of some kind and the prep school will have full access to it. Coaching/teaching has always been a dream of mine and I think I know just enough to be able to help some kids out. Really excited about it.
 
Good luck James. I do remember reading posts about this some time ago so it looks like your patience has paid off. Both my boys played HS golf and loved it. It was a tough balance when they play other sports.
 
Good luck on the endeavor, James. Sounds like the team is in good hands. Expect great things from them, and some of them will deliver great things.

I never cared that much about HS golf until my wife's cousins were involved with it. My wife's aunt (mother of the aforementioned cousins) is a HS golf coach and a good player, and her two sons are pretty dang good. The daughter is okay and managed to snag a scholarship to a small private college, partly for golf. It's fun to watch them develop and get better.

NoLine said:
Good luck with it, cut throat is an understatement. My daughter beat out a junior to make varsity as a freshman, to say it has gotten ugly doesn't do ugly justice.
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Good for her! The junior needs to step up her game obviously; she's not entitled to a spot because of her age. I hope your daughter keeps it up, especially beating out all the girls who think they are entitled to their spot on the team. Keep getting better or get run over.
 
Congrats on the job James! You already know it's a lot of work (comes with the teaching gig), but kids will generally respond positively to someone in charge who is passionate bout golf and who they know cares about them and wants them to do well.

I'm coaching JV boys (just finished up my first ever season. Obviously as a high handicapper I'm no swing coach, but i was surprised by how little most of the kids know (or don't know) about rules, strategy, short game, & putting - even those with swing coaches.

The thing that stood out right away is how appreciative the parents were that a coach was actually following the kids around during matches and encouraging them. The previous coach just sat in a cart & played with his phone).


Questions for you & anyone else who's coached or whose kids are playing/have played:

1) How many days a week does the JV team practice? At my school it's 2x/week (one reason is head coach wanted to make sure kids put academics first, and as frosh & sophomores they tend to need more time studying - still figuring stuff out)

2) How much practice time is range time vs playing the course?
 
Congrats James! Having a coach who knows the game and cares is so important for developing these kids games and helping them develop into productive men. When I played in high school, our coach was nothing more than a driver, which makes the results our team achieved all the more remarkable (4 straight team conf championships, 3 regional wins, 2 individual runners up at states). All we did was play 9 four days a week and submitted our scores. They were averaged on Friday and that made up next weeks top 6. No instruction, no drills, no training. It's a wonder any of us ever broke 80. All the players on the team worked at the local country club and got help that way (most were members and had played for years). I really wonder where we could have been with a coach like you.
 
shanewu said:
Good luck on the endeavor, James. Sounds like the team is in good hands. Expect great things from them, and some of them will deliver great things.

I never cared that much about HS golf until my wife's cousins were involved with it. My wife's aunt (mother of the aforementioned cousins) is a HS golf coach and a good player, and her two sons are pretty dang good. The daughter is okay and managed to snag a scholarship to a small private college, partly for golf. It's fun to watch them develop and get better.


Good for her! The junior needs to step up her game obviously; she's not entitled to a spot because of her age. I hope your daughter keeps it up, especially beating out all the girls who think they are entitled to their spot on the team. Keep getting better or get run over.
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Thanks I appreciate that. She has game and puts the work in


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The job you have always wanted. Very happy for you James. Sounds like quite the undertaking, but it will be very rewarding for you.
I wish you luck, and want to say that those are some lucky kids.
 
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