Indiana University Athletics
Clint Wallman Q & A
7/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
June 23, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - As Indiana women's golf head coach Clint Wallman enters his second season with the Hoosiers, his staff and players are looking forward to improvement and success during the upcoming 2005-06 campaign. Recently, Wallman took time out of his schedule to discuss what it was like during his first season as a head coach, the kind of expectations he has for next year and many more things with IUHOOSIERS.com.
How have the offseason workouts been going?
"All of the girls have been working very hard on their golf game by playing tournaments and practicing hard. Molly Redfearn had a great tournament at the Wisconsin State Match Play, where she qualified for the championship flight before dropping a tough match on the 19th hole in the quarterfinals. We have a lot of girls out there playing tournaments against quality golfers and that will only help them as we head into next season."
How is the mood of the whole team heading into the fall season?
"There is a lot of excitement. It's better from a coaching standpoint to have a year under our belts, and where the players understand how we do things and what to expect from the coaching staff. There is a lot of optimism as we head into next season. They all worked hard last year and improved a tremendous amount as evidenced by some of their results. With the new players coming in, they feel confident that we will be able to make a statement."
What kind of leadership would you like the returnees to play for the incoming class?
"I think we have a couple of really neat things happening. Molly and Katie being seniors will have the responsibilities of teaching the game of college golf. We also have a very seasoned player in Shannon Johnson coming from New Mexico and will be a senior this coming year. Adding someone with her kind of experience to the upperclassmen mix will certainly be a positive."
Who do you see stepping up next season?
"I think Molly has made some huge strides in her game and is playing at a big-time level. I look for Molly to have a tremendous senior season. At the same time, I feel Katie has also gained confidence and learned a lot about herself and her game. I look for all the upperclassmen to be solid for us this year. Elaine Harris can challenge and push the upperclassmen. I see her coming back as a much more confident player and she has a better of idea of what it takes to compete at collegiate golf tournaments. I definitely feel Elaine will have a very strong year for us. Gennifer Marrs and Kendal Hake have both improved tremendous amounts. Kendal is coming off an illness, which kept her out of the spring season, so she is picking up where she left off. I see both of these players battling for starting spots. A luxury we have this year is it will be very competitive for playing spots, especially the three, four, five and six spots. We will have eight players going for those six spots. The newcomers will bring the level of competition up just by their presence. They are going to learn what college golf is all about, but the upside to them is they all can throw low numbers up at any time. Each of them is competitive, driven and they are all excited about being the core of Hoosier golf for the future."
As a coaching staff, are there any differences heading into this year compared to last year?
"We are definitely much more settled. With having a year under the belt at the pace which we had it was unbelievable. We came here three weeks prior to the first practice and that didn't give me a lot of time to get schedules set, a system in place and getting things streamlined the way we want them to go. I have had the opportunity this summer to better prepare for the upcoming year. We are really excited about this year coming up and we feel that we can make a big jump in improvement and tournament finishes through the course of the year. I fully expect us to compete for titles and maybe even win one or two. I can see a couple of the girls winning individual events. I think we have the capability to be that much improved."
How do you see the fall schedule shaping up?
"Our fall schedule has great balance for us. We start at Notre Dame, which is a pretty good field. It will be the first tournament of the year and I think it will be a good thing for us to start at a moderate level tournament as opposed to a tournament, which has some of the top teams in the country. The Mary Fossum Classic at Michigan State will be our next tournament and is typically a very strong field. It is played on a golf course which will be good for our team. Then we host the Lady Northern. I'm going to say that's the highlight of our fall because it will be played on our home turf and gives us a good barometer of how we stack up against the Big Ten teams on a course we are very familiar with. After that we go to the Shootout at the Legends, where we played really well last year. We had a number of players record personal bests there last year and we feel it is a tournament at which we can be competitive. Then we close the fall at Penn State, which will be the first time we will travel there. Again, they have a typically strong field, but not an overwhelming one. We will get to see some teams from the East and that will be a good way to end our fall season."
