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High School Golf Thread

Congrats on the position James. If there is anyone out there more qualified it's you. I see big things happening...it might not be right away, but soon!
 
Congrats and good luck James! I hope to be an assistant coach in 4 years when my youngest daughter plays in high school.
 
Congrats, Jman! Have a great season!
 
Jman congrats on finally getting the job. I know how hard it is to get a golf coaching job as I have been unsuccessful in my school district basically with the same story you shared. I hope you are able to bring your program back to what it once was and spread the joys of this game to all the young minds that give you a chance. Good luck my friend I wish you the best of luck.
 
Congrats and a tip of the hat for what you are doing!

Golf, when I was a teen, was a sport I played occasionally but I never thought of joining the team. Our HS had the NYS championship team 7 out of 10 years, I recall.

Last spring, I was golfing as a single on a Sunday AM when visiting Erie PA and got paired with 3 guys. One was a retired HS teacher who happened to have been the golf coach and the other two had played for him maybe 15 years earlier. You could really see the love and respect they had for their coach and, today, their teacher/student relationship has evolved into a great friendship that spans generations. I'm sure that doesn't happen in all cases but it does speak to the impact these extracurricular activities have on how young people grow up.

Kudos for making a difference (and have fun doing it).
 
Good on you for taking this on! After watching my son and daughter be in two different high school golf programs I definitely have some observations and opinions. You can definitely tell the programs that treat golf like a school "activity" and those that treat it as an actual sport. My son played on a team where the coach basically said just be at the course from this time to this time and drove the bus to the tournaments. Essentially, it was treated like chess club, just something for the kids to do.

My daughters team is totally different and it shows. The school barely had enough girls to field a team about four years ago. But, the combination of active coaching, a group of girls growing up together, making the State championship 3 out of the last 4 years, and having the top two teams in district last year has paid dividends. Both the boys and girls teams have had a major influx of interest, and the program is flourishing. The coaches treat it as a real sport, setting practice schedules and running drills for the kids to work on their games.

One thing I would be careful about is how you guide the players that are working with outside coaches. It is one thing to set up a practice program, practice rounds, and all that goes with it and giving swing tips and guidance. If a kid is working with a pro, don't try and fix a swing flaw or change something. Hopefully, their instructor has a step by step game plan to address things. You my be trying to get to step D, when he wants to hone step B. Always good to play video guy if they need it, but keep the advice to a minimum. If you have a relationship with the pro might be good to keep up with what they are working to help with the drills or practice time to work on it.
 
BigTex said:
Good on you for taking this on! After watching my son and daughter be in two different high school golf programs I definitely have some observations and opinions. You can definitely tell the programs that treat golf like a school "activity" and those that treat it as an actual sport. My son played on a team where the coach basically said just be at the course from this time to this time and drove the bus to the tournaments. Essentially, it was treated like chess club, just something for the kids to do.

My daughters team is totally different and it shows. The school barely had enough girls to field a team about four years ago. But, the combination of active coaching, a group of girls growing up together, making the State championship 3 out of the last 4 years, and having the top two teams in district last year has paid dividends. Both the boys and girls teams have had a major influx of interest, and the program is flourishing. The coaches treat it as a real sport, setting practice schedules and running drills for the kids to work on their games.

One thing I would be careful about is how you guide the players that are working with outside coaches. It is one thing to set up a practice program, practice rounds, and all that goes with it and giving swing tips and guidance. If a kid is working with a pro, don't try and fix a swing flaw or change something. Hopefully, their instructor has a step by step game plan to address things. You my be trying to get to step D, when he wants to hone step B. Always good to play video guy if they need it, but keep the advice to a minimum. If you have a relationship with the pro might be good to keep up with what they are working to help with the drills or practice time to work on it.
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IMO, and its just that (and not meant harsh towards you AT ALL as I love the convo), you would have to be an imbecile to try and play swing coach with a player with a swing coach. Facts are, in HS the golf coach is primarily a mental coach more than anything else. You'd be amazed how much can be taught simply by asking things like "Why did you choose that club?", "What were you trying to do there?", "What do you gain by trying to fly it to the hole?", and the list goes on. Its going to be fun.

Looks like we are getting 3 good days here before the bottom falls out again, told the non-basketball and non-wrestlers they are welcome to come out and do some work with me those days after school at the course, we will see how many show and how it goes.

I also added elsewhere about it, but the boys team will be rocking Matte Grey this year. Naturally. Hahahaha
 
Jman said:
IMO, and its just that (and not meant harsh towards you AT ALL as I love the convo), you would have to be an imbecile to try and play swing coach with a player with a swing coach. Facts are, in HS the golf coach is primarily a mental coach more than anything else. You'd be amazed how much can be taught simply by asking things like "Why did you choose that club?", "What were you trying to do there?", "What do you gain by trying to fly it to the hole?", and the list goes on. Its going to be fun.

Looks like we are getting 3 good days here before the bottom falls out again, told the non-basketball and non-wrestlers they are welcome to come out and do some work with me those days after school at the course, we will see how many show and how it goes.

I also added elsewhere about it, but the boys team will be rocking Matte Grey this year. Naturally. Hahahaha
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Ha! Totally agree! But she has an assistant coach that stayed at a Holiday Inn one night and thinks he knows better. Told her to be polite, pretend like she was listening, and do what her swing coach wanted her to do.

You are spot on about the mental side. One thing the coaches do real well is help the girls game plan for a course, and lay out some good landing areas, places to miss, etc.



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I think there is a place for playing swing coach, but certainly not if they have a relationship with a pro already. I can think of several occasions where we have made changes on short game swings or specialty shots, but with their full swings I see a lot of kids really struggling because they're trying to listen to too many people's opinions on how to improve. Like has been said, much of the job comes down to teaching the kids course management and mental help.
 
Great news. It will be fun to follow along in this thread as the season(s) progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed my h.s. golf time. Our coach was a pretty good player. Along with the normal practice drills, the varsity would play "carry the bag" against him in practice rounds. Like match play, but instead of being 1 down, you carry that persons bag on the next hole. And, he'd have us play the par 3 course with only 1 club and a putter so that we'd learn to score. Our closest district opponents were 100 miles away. So, there was a lot of station wagon time and long bus trips when the JV went with us. Good times!

Have fun!
 
I played HS golf a long time ago and we were terrible. Our coach was nothing more than a history teacher that had moved on from coaching cheerleading. He got us where we needed to be but that was about it.

James: I can't even fathom having a coach of your knowledge, excitement, and desire. Those kids have no idea how lucky they are. Enjoy it my friend, you will make an enormous impact on them on and off the course.
 
Gotta ask...what is the most common reason for schools allowing the horrible, do-nothing coaches to remain coaches?

1) Politics?
2) No one else wants to coach that sport?
3) Other?

I'm not even a parent and it pisses me off...probably because I just hate it when people just take up space and don't do their jobs, especially if it's something they signed up for. And I hate the example and message it sends to the kids in this case.
 
#Cookie said:
I played HS golf a long time ago and we were terrible. Our coach was nothing more than a history teacher that had moved on from coaching cheerleading. He got us where we needed to be but that was about it.

James: I can't even fathom having a coach of your knowledge, excitement, and desire. Those kids have no idea how lucky they are. Enjoy it my friend, you will make an enormous impact on them on and off the course.
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Thanks buddy, I'm pretty excited, to say the least. But, being passed up 3 times is just fuel to that fire.

Bit of an....issue today. The course in town doesn't have a range, so traditionally the course in the neighboring town (where I'm actually a member, which will soon be past tense) lets our kids come over and hit range since they are junior golfers, was just informed they will be charging us now per bag. Not happy. At all.
 
shanewu said:
Gotta ask...what is the most common reason for schools allowing the horrible, do-nothing coaches to remain coaches?

1) Politics?
2) No one else wants to coach that sport?
3) Other?

I'm not even a parent and it pisses me off...probably because I just hate it when people just take up space and don't do their jobs, especially if it's something they signed up for. And I hate the example and message it sends to the kids in this case.
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You have to understand, just like with college, in high school Football and Basketball are the money makers, from there Baseball can break even, and depending on where you are Wrestling can as well (in HS at least, its HUGE in this state). Because of that emphasis is put on bringing in coaches for those sports who will yield success, and since teacher pay is atrocious it comes back to the stipends for coaches, most schools will give a big sport coach a "small" one (golf, track, cross country, etc) in order to get them an "easy" stipend to help their annual income/salary. Its the way it is, and will always be for most normal small to mid class schools. Now, in the BIG schools that changes, as well as in the private schools.
 
Jman said:
You have to understand, just like with college, in high school Football and Basketball are the money makers, from there Baseball can break even, and depending on where you are Wrestling can as well (in HS at least, its HUGE in this state). Because of that emphasis is put on bringing in coaches for those sports who will yield success, and since teacher pay is atrocious it comes back to the stipends for coaches, most schools will give a big sport coach a "small" one (golf, track, cross country, etc) in order to get them an "easy" stipend to help their annual income/salary. Its the way it is, and will always be for most normal small to mid class schools. Now, in the BIG schools that changes, as well as in the private schools.
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That's absolutely accurate.
 
shanewu said:
Gotta ask...what is the most common reason for schools allowing the horrible, do-nothing coaches to remain coaches?

1) Politics?
2) No one else wants to coach that sport?
3) Other?

I'm not even a parent and it pisses me off...probably because I just hate it when people just take up space and don't do their jobs, especially if it's something they signed up for. And I hate the example and message it sends to the kids in this case.
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Politics and laziness is the answer for my school division. They have coaches who have been doing the job for so long that they just don't bother with them. They seem to just get the respect of the admin and the AD's let them just do their thing. There are some coaches around here that are just a saint to everyone but are in person a piece of crap. Some of it is that the quality of kids and the talent is so bad that they don't try and coach and improve them but get a pay check to babysit. I could go on but don't want to take this thread in the wrong direction.
 
Jman do you kids have to pay a fee to play school sports? My division makes the kids pay to be part of the team now, and the funny thing is for smaller teams like XC we never see anything back from downtown.
 
Lynchburg14 said:
Jman do you kids have to pay a fee to play school sports? My division makes the kids pay to be part of the team now, and the funny thing is for smaller teams like XC we never see anything back from downtown.
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Nah, not around here, but I'm pretty much a rural area. Our golf program is actually completely independent of the general athletic fund, so we get literally nothing from the school other than the ability to go and represent it.
 
Jman said:
You have to understand, just like with college, in high school Football and Basketball are the money makers, from there Baseball can break even, and depending on where you are Wrestling can as well (in HS at least, its HUGE in this state). Because of that emphasis is put on bringing in coaches for those sports who will yield success, and since teacher pay is atrocious it comes back to the stipends for coaches, most schools will give a big sport coach a "small" one (golf, track, cross country, etc) in order to get them an "easy" stipend to help their annual income/salary. Its the way it is, and will always be for most normal small to mid class schools. Now, in the BIG schools that changes, as well as in the private schools.
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I thought it might be about the 'big money' sports.

Anyway, I'm happy for you that you get to make a positive difference in the program and junior golfers' lives.
 
Question for Jman or any of the other golf coaches. What is one thing a parent can do for their golfing kid to help you out as a coach? My son is only 4 so by the time he is in high school it's hard telling if he'll even want to play golf or not. I'm hoping he will then I'll have a reason to go play more often. He can't make varsity based on his looks. :act-up:
 
bogeyme said:
Question for Jman or any of the other golf coaches. What is one thing a parent can do for their golfing kid to help you out as a coach? My son is only 4 so by the time he is in high school it's hard telling if he'll even want to play golf or not. I'm hoping he will then I'll have a reason to go play more often. He can't make varsity based on his looks. :act-up:
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For me, I was talking to a couple parents about something similar the other day, keep it fun or they WILL burn out, realize not everyone is going to be a tour pro, and let them find their initial pace/interest in it. Make it engaging, and they will eat it up.

More than anything, I just want kids who WANT to play. They're at an age where if they have that, the improvement will come rapid.
 
Jman said:
More than anything, I just want kids who WANT to play. They're at an age where if they have that, the improvement will come rapid.
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Couldn't agree MORE! Kids now days tend to be so disconnected with reality, due to the virtual reality world they live in....so it seems. If you find a few kids who WANT to play, they will SOAK up any kind of knowledge they can for their passion, golf or otherwise.
 
I sucked to much to make my high school team so played tennis instead.
 
ntanygd760 said:
I sucked to much to make my high school team so played tennis instead.
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I didn't even try out for my HS team. 15 years removed from HS, I wish I would have at least tried out or asked about being on the team. Stupid girls were more important at the time. I could have been someone. :act-up:
 
First day out was a lot of fun, we pretty much had the course to ourselves and I ended up with 8 showing up (including 2 coming out right after they finished basketball practice which impressed me). The day was simple, we played in together so I could see them all out there and how they think/play and I told them to just hit the ball, chase it, and hit it again.

First on the agenda, SLOW FREAKING PLAY. This will end, silly sophomores and freshmen there, they don't know what ready golf means at all and it kills me. I even had my #1 tell me how bad it was last year and how they would rag on him for being in too big of a rush. Of course, the previous coach also let them go fishing after about 20 minutes of "practice".

The #1 is a stick, and will be even better this year with some actual guidance, I'll have him for 2 years too which is a bonus. Looks like the #2 will be a freshman who's been taking lessons, its tall, lanky, and is already generating a lot of good speed on whats a pretty swing right now as is, he's going to keep taking lessons which is exciting to see that much care in a freshman, add to that he's a thinker and I love it, he thinks through EVERY shot and looks for the smart play, really think we can get him low 80's or high 70's by the end of the season, sounds lofty, but he wants to and has the skills. From there, its going to be getting a lot of the kids to just understand how to play the most effective type of shots and not hero shots all the time, some are going to respond, some won't, it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out.
 
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