Sept. 2, 2013
Kyle Marino
[email protected]
The women’s golf program will head into the 2013-2014 season competing as part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
Sadie Farnsworth, who was announced as the first head coach in June, will lead the Mountain Lions in their inaugural campaign.
Farnsworth and her players know it will be tough to get the program started since they got such a late start on the recruiting trail and are a new face in the competitive RMAC.
“Getting this program started has been very challenging. It was hard to find good players to be on this first team,” Farnsworth said.
“Since I was hired in June, I was very late in the game of recruiting. I was very lucky to have three girls on the team when I was hired,” she said.
Amanda Crites, the first golfer to sign a letter of intent, was already signed before Farnsworth took over. She was unavailable for comment, but Farnsworth highlighted her as one of the golfers to look out for this year.
Despite the difficulties of getting the program off the ground, Farnsworth believes her team will not miss a beat.
“Our goal is to win. I am very confident in my expectations this year for my players. We expect to be competitive in every tournament we play in this season and just because we are a new program doesn’t mean we should be taken lightly,” Farnsworth said.
The confidence of the coach is also reflected in the six golfers on the team, which has high expectations headed into the campaign and they can feel the added pressure being the newest sports team on campus.
“UCCS Athletics are becoming a force to be reckoned with, and we hope to be no exception,” said senior and team captain Laura Gritz. “We feel some pressure to perform at the level that we know we are able to, and if we can achieve that then we would be so proud of having such a great start.”
“There are some expectations for us to do well, especially looking at how strong the men’s team is, but there are also some low expectations out there because we are such a new team,” said Gritz.
The inaugural campaign tends to be the toughest for a new program, but this team hopes to have the confidence and talent needed to make some noise in their first season in the RMAC.
“I believe the success could be immediate, we have a great team that is ready to go play some tournament golf,” said Gritz.
“But as good as this first year should be, I know the years after will be even better. There are so many amazing players looking to join the UCCS family,” she added. “We will have a year of experience under our belts. This program will become successful very quickly.