Kansas Wesleyan coach Hannah Hendrickson knows she has a talented and experienced golf team that won the Kansas Conference women's championship by a whopping 60 strokes and qualified for the NAIA National Championship last spring.
For Hendrickson, though, those accomplishment are pointless this fall as the Coyotes prepare to defend their title.
"One of the things I consciously tried to do over the summer was not compare this year's team to last year's team," she said. "Even though we have four of our top five back it's still a new team, it's still a new year. I want us to get away from comparing it to last year."
To that end Hendrickson encouraged her athletes to take some time off during the summer.
"One of the things about having a good year is you get burnout really easily, especially if you keep trying to recreate that hot streak," she said. "Obviously still practice and play but not consciously try to keep something going.
"I would hate for them to end their three or four years here and say 'I never had fun playing golf, it was always work.' I really encouraged them to have fun over the summer and enjoy their time whether that's on the golf course or off."
The top three golfers and five of the top six return from last season, including Hannah Hart (SO/Ventura, Calif.) who won the KCAC individual title as a freshman with a 323 score. Kristen Sayyalinh (JR/Rockford, Ill.) was second (334), Aidan Richmond (SO/Keller, Texas) fifth (337), Corey Mein (JR/Libera) 12th (342) and Thalia Ramirez (SO/Leawood) 27th (373).
KWU plays its first fall competition in the SCU Fall Invitational on Tuesday and Wednesday at Lake Hefner Golf Course in Oklahoma City.
Hendrickson will use the seven fall tournaments to hone the Coyotes' skills for the spring session.
"I like to think of fall as its own season," she said. "However, if you think of it in terms of golf it's a little bit like a practice round for the spring season. We can be competitive but it's also a little bit of here's what we need to clean up, here's what we need to work on, here's what we need to do going into the spring.
"We play in a fair amount of tournaments, you still have the conference match play championship (Oct. 4-5 at Dodge City), we still have opportunities to play against top teams and try to crack the (NAIA) top 25 in the fall season."
The Wesleyan women's and men's teams also will compete in the KWU Fall Invitational on Sept. 27-28 at Salina Country Club.
Hendrickson is preaching patience and process during the fall.
"I'm telling the team to take it tournament by tournament; we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves," she said. "We've got to stay in the moment, we've got to take week by week, day by day, just get a little bit better every day, every tournament."
MEN'S TEAM REBUILDING
Young is the operative word for the KWU men.
The Coyotes won the KCAC title last spring and were led by individual champion Troy Watson (327 total) who went on to earn First Team All-America honors with a seventh-place finish at the NAIA National Championship at Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.
Watson, though, is gone along with Logan Vacca who was a key member of the KWU squad for four years.
Coach Coleman Houk is using the fall season to get this year's team ready for the rigors of the spring. And there's plenty to do for a team that has just one senior (Cameron Becker (SR/Coffeyville)) and three juniors among the 17-man squad.
"The exciting part is that our average age right now is about 18½," Houk said. "We have a lot of learning to do. It comes quick in the fall but it's valuable experience."
The Coyotes placed 16th out of 19 teams at the talent-laden U.C. Ferguson Classic at Lincoln Park Golf Course last week in Oklahoma City. KWU plays in the men's portion of the SCU Fall Invitational Tuesday and Wednesday in OKC.
"There's going to be a lot of ups and downs but pushing through this and understanding what gets us into certain situations and still continuing to compete against the best teams in the nation is going to make it go fast," Houk said.
The Coyotes aren't completely devoid of experience as three of the top five return from last year's KCAC championship team – Trevor Watson (SO/Coffeyville) (Troy's brother), Landon Berquist (SO/Lawrence) and Ethan Vikander (SO/Aberdeen, S.D.). Matthew Freriks (JR/Stinnett, Texas) and Trevor Oberg (JR/McCook, Neb.) round out the top five.
Freshmen Victor Cascio (FR/Kansas City, Mo.), Tyler Tarvin (FR/North Richland Hills, Texas), Kaleb Thingelstad (FR/Crookston, Minn.) and Adam Vigars (FR/Princeton, Ill.) have played well early on, according to Houk.
"All the guys that in the past that have had supporting roles are now going to be the top guys that we're looking for the best scores from," he said.