For every end there is a new beginning. As the golf season finally comes to a close I begin a new chapter in my interscholastic sport coaching career at Brookline High School with the alpine ski team.

But first I’d like to recap the fall golf season. There were many ups and definitely a lot of downs throughout the season. I had set a few realistic goals for myself and the team in August - some qualitative, some quantitative. I can say with quite a bit of confidence that almost every one of those goals were accomplished. Even though our final record was a lowly 2-14, the accomplishment I was most impressed with was that every single varsity player improved over the course of our 8 home matches. The team scoring average from the second half of the season was more than 1 stroke better than the first half average. That is an amazing feat for any golfer during a period of a year, let alone 2 months. The alternates also impressed me throughout the season as they began to build confidence and better understand the game. It’ll be interesting to see who will step up next season and claim the 2 varsity spots vacated by graduating seniors.

Some lessons learned on my part as a first time coach: don’t cut as many kids from tryouts. I think my biggest mistake was not giving the freshmen I cut a chance to practice, improve, and possibly show they belong on the team in the future. Most of them fortunately didn’t get too discouraged and joined other teams – which I really like to see. As long as they’re participating I am happy. A key part of my coaching philosophy is definitely to keep kids active and involved.