A season on par
The expectations for the men’s golf team may have never been higher, but head coach Chris Curran believes his team can meet them.
Utah Valley athletic teams are on the rise. Each year, it seems the teams are getting better and better. For the men’s golf team, that trend of improvement and winning championships will be all too fitting.
Expectations are a high for the team as the Wolverines start the 2012-2013 campaign and look to build off the best season in school history.
Despite last year’s success, head coach Chris Curran and his team aren’t going to slow down. They plan to look forward and use last year as a building block to achieve higher goals.
“We continue to raise the bar every year,” Curran said. “We’ll continue to build on last year’s success and continue to compete.”
The main goals the team has is to compete and be the top contenders in each tournament they play.
“Our goal is to win golf tournaments,” Curran said. “I understand that we can’t win all the tournaments, but if we can be in contention, we will be satisfied.”
The Wolverines will need to prepare themselves to compete against some great competition. While Curran knows he has a great team, he will prepare them to do great things.
“This year’s schedule has us facing several top 25 teams,” Curran said. “This means we have to elevate how we practice and really get the most out of every day.”
The Wolverines definitely have the talent to compete with the top 25. There were no graduating seniors on last year’s team. This gives the Wolverines added experience and leadership this year, which will help mold the younger team members to step up their game and better the team.
“We have a team with a lot of tournament experience,” Curran said. “Mason Casper and Joey Olson, some of our upperclassmen, lead by example and get to practice early. They really set the tone for the rest of our team to see how it‘s done.”
Having the confidence to compete every week will help the golf team accomplish their main goal: win the America Sky Conference, something that has never happened before in school history. Curran believes that they can make a promising run at it.
A conference win would mean automatic berth in the NCAA regionals, which could give way to a national championship title run. But the main focus for the golf team is to make it to the regional qualifier.
“Winning the America Sky Conference is our main priority,” Curran said. “It would be phenomenal to go into regionals and say we are an elite team in the country.”
This team does have what it takes to win the conference and to move on to regionals. They also have the potential to be the best in school history. They will continue to improve and compete every week in order to achieve their worthy goals of the 2012-2013 season.
Garrett is native of Orem, Utah. He is a graduate of Timpanogos High School. While in high school, Garrett enjoyed playing sports and was a double lettered athlete in football in wrestling. After a short stint of college football at Dixie State, Garrett made his way back to Utah Valley in pursuit of his aspirations of becoming a sports journalist. Garrett has been contributing for the UVU Review for three years and has covered sports, specializing in wrestling. Garrett is married to Jodi Coleman and served an LDS mission to Baguio Philippines. You can follow him on twitter @legendgary