It's Inevitable

It's inevitable that as a college athlete when your four years of eligibility are done there WILL come a time when you sit back and think to yourself "Wow, I could have been better."

For some the thought can occur while sitting in the library writing a senior sem. paper while for others it may take a few years to come to this realization. But it will come to you.

For myself, I realized this after I played terrible on the second day at the Kutztown Spring Invitiational. Coach laid into me. I'll spare you the details of what was said because mainly I don't care to recall that conversation but what he said rang true (even if I didn't want to believe him at the time).

I hadn't been practicing as much as I should have been. But for good reason, there were a multifactorial (thanks Ben!) number of reasons why I was unable to get out to the course to practice yet that is no excuse. I SHOULD have been out there. I would have have better. And I know that.

After Kutztown, we had a one-day invitational up at Gettysburg two days later. I knew if I wanted to right this ship then I NEEDED to be out there working on the things that failed me at Kutztown. And I did just that. I spent two hours - by myself - chipping, lofting pitch shots and hitting a few longer irons at the course on an 85 degree day in late April in Westminster, Md.

It worked. I didn't play as well as I would have liked but I played better.

This is what I want to preach to my guys - and really to the rest of the student-athletes. I don't want them to come to the realization when they are 23 years old, done with college and working full-time. It's about having fun but it is also about realizing and striving to achieve your potential.

I don't want to see anyone have regrets. Granted I don't have any regrets to how my college golf career turned out, I do believe I could have been a better player on the course being five years removed. Hell I still re-live that day at the conference championship my senior year when I shot a 39 on the front after starting out bogey, bogey, bogey but completely shit the bed on the back.

It's tough to do because I was there but I want them to learn from my experiences and be better than me.

(Editor's Note: Head fake! I thought I was writing this about the student-athletes realizing their potential while they are in college not after they graduate, but in reality I actual wrote this about myself. Wow! I have a lot I need to work on. So let's get started!)