University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Schedule With A Purpose
7/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, July 28, 2009, 10:31 a.m.
North Texas golf coach Brad Stracke is starting his first full season this fall as head coach and is diving head long into the fire. Or should I say driving. When he handed me this schedule I thought to myself “is he crazy?” Has he been in the Texas sun too long? Does he think that he can resurrect a tradition-rich program by playing this type of competition right out of the gate?
The answer is yes. It finally dawned on me that college golf schedules and competition isn’t like any other sport out there. Your schedule in collegiate golf can dictate a lot more than just who and where you will be playing. It’s one of the primary recruiting tools coaches use when looking for players.
Let’s face it, college golfers are typically use to playing on some of the best courses in the region if not the country and a lot of that comes before they set foot onto a college campus. When they pick a school, often times they want to be playing the best courses, in the best places, against the best teams. Period.
That’s a reality that collegiate golf coaches must face when recruiting athletes. Coach Stracke has embraced that philosophy and then some. He whipped up a 2009-10 schedule that has eight new tournaments highlighted by the Seminole Intercollegiate on March 13-14. The Mean Green will face a field that includes Florida State, Auburn, Mississippi State, Baylor, South Carolina, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, Maryland, and Arkansas.
In case you’re wondering, five of those teams were ranked in the top 50 last year and two in the top 15.
This is the caliber of competition that Stracke wants. He’s a guy who’s use to winning. At Indian Hills his team won the national title in 2000. At Florida he was part of a national runner-up squad in 2006. He’s been a winner everywhere he’s been.
Each coach takes winning and losing differently, but I noticed last year the shear intensity and desire in Coach Stracke to win.
His vision for North Texas is simple. Win and win now. He isn’t interested in taking the long road to rebuild, he wants success now. Coach Stracke isn’t laying up in year two, he’s got the driver out and looks to send North Texas a long ways into the national spotlight.
