Bronco Talk
The Santa Clara men's golf team had a high rate of success this year, winning a total of four tournaments and placing third last week at the West Coast Conference championships in Copperopolis. At the helm is first-year head coach Rob Miller who was named WCC Coach of the Year at the tournament. Sports writer Jason Cohn spoke with Miller about his great start at Santa Clara and the reputation he has already established.
JC: Congratulations on winning WCC Coach of the Year. How does it feel to win such an honor your first year at Santa Clara?
RM: It was kind of a shock. I appreciate the other coaches recognizing what we're trying to do here at Santa Clara. Pepperdine has been so dominant in this conference over the last 10 years; I think a lot of coaches are trying to step up to their level and it's nice to get recognized for being one of the programs that's doing that.
JC: Can you talk about your coaching style and what that adds to the team?
RM: My job this year was to take the guys who were already here and figure out how to make them the best they could be. I found out after talking to them that they needed to stop putting so much pressure on themselves and take things a little more lightly. So I tried to do things a little differently to put the fun back into golf.
JC: What is the atmosphere like at practice?
RM: We have a lot of different types of practice going on, but one of my goals was to teach these guys to think their way around the course. This fall, we played three days a week for two months, and we never played the same course twice. This allowed them to prepare for playing in tournaments on courses they've never seen before. We also try to have little competitions between teammates so the guys are having fun while playing competitively. If you lose the fun and enjoyment of the sport, especially at the collegiate level, you're missing out on life.
JC: What is this team losing with two seniors graduating?
RM: John Colyar and Mike Nicoletti have really been the leaders of this team. One of my goals this year was to make their last year as successful as possible, and they worked in return to make this year successful for me. Mike has been the anchor on the team this year. Next year, Jong Yoon and Eric Lillibridge are going to be our seniors, and I think they're probably going to be the guys who we'll work with to establish the same type of relationship, and I think they'll do well in that role.
JC: What are your expectations for the postseason?
RM: It's not official yet, but we expect to make the Western Regional in Tucson, Ariz. for the first time in school history. The guys are really excited about it because we've all worked hard for this. We feel like we have the ability to make the top 10 out of a field of 30 and move on to nationals. We still haven't played our best golf this season, so if we can play two good rounds and one OK round, that should be enough to get us to nationals.
JC: With all the success you've had this year, are you going to be feeling any pressure to fulfill the fan's expectations for next year?
RM: I was lucky to have a group of kids this year that were really motivated, and that's been nice to come into. Golf is a sport where people's games come and go, and as a coach, sometimes there's nothing you can do. So I'm not going to take all the credit for what these guys did this year because they all worked really hard to get where they're at.