Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Q&A with head coach Justin Fetcho
03/15/2019 | 8:30:00 | Men's Golf
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Saluki men's golf head coach Justin Fetcho sat down this week to talk about the team's season so far.
Looking back, what are your thoughts about the fall schedule?
I think we were up and down. I think we had some really good things that happened. I think we had some times where we let ourselves down a little bit. I think there's some good of being up and down in the fall. It really makes you learn about your team and how they respond to the adversity of the hits. If everything goes perfectly and nothing bad ever happens, you'll never know how your team will react to something bad. I think it was good for us to face some challenges in the fall through the different golf courses and competition. We also had some success, we won a tournament which is a good indicator that your team can handle the pressure that comes with being able to win whole tournaments. Obviously, we want to be able to do that again in the spring. I think we had some great individual performances. I think with the talent and makeup of this group we still fell short in some areas, there's still some things we can improve on throughout the spring. We've worked hard in the off season and through the start of the spring to overcome those things.
How hard was it to train over the winter?
We've had some challenges with the weather, but we made the most of our indoor area using trackman and short game. I'm excited for all of the events this spring. I told the guys that this year I want to do a better job at not looking ahead at all of the events and just focusing on the one right in front of us. We've got nine guys that are working really hard and putting in the time and effort. I think that will do well for us as we move forward through the spring, and as we try accomplish the high goals this team has for the season. The first part of doing that is the hard work and the commitment, and I think we're doing a good job at that.
The team is traveling a lot in the spring, do you think this will benefit the team?
In the fall we had the chance to play local; we got a chance to play a lot of tournaments in the Midwest. I think in the early spring we have to get out of this area to get good golf and good competition. We're fortunate that we got invited to some nice places and then we get to come back and play in the Midwest. For the most part we won't have to worry about the conditions, but if we do we can adjust and adapt to that. As we get later in the spring schedule we transition back to the Midwest, since that's where the conference championship is. I know the guys are excited to travel to Florida and California. I think all those places are great golf courses and competition, so it's a win-win for us to those experiences and learn from the competition we'll face since we didn't see them in the fall.
Talk about the degree of difficulty of the spring schedule.
I think looking back at the first two spring tournaments, we saw a lot of teams that were top-10 and top-50 in the country. So those tournaments were really loaded with quality opponents. It was a great indicator of where we're at and where we want to be. Our goal is to be there within the top-50. I think with the rest of our events, even though the opponents might not have as much firepower, I still think we're looking at some really great teams. I don't think for this spring we could pinpoint one tournament and say that's a super easy win. That's not really how we like to schedule. We want to put ourselves in tough situations where we're playing high-level competition. If we do the things we're capable of, then we'll put ourselves in the position to win golf tournaments like we did in the early fall.
Do you guys pay attention to rankings at all?
I don't think we really get too wrapped up in the rankings. We don't dive in and say 'there's 15 teams here, and here are where they're all ranked'. Rankings for us are more so we have a goal set to where we want to be at that we can keep working toward. If we're ranked first or if we're ranked 300th that doesn't guarantee that we're going to win our conference or play in the NCAA Regional, or that we'll advance to the NCAA Championship. We still have to play how we're capable of when it comes to the post-season. From that standpoint, the rankings are what they are. Hopefully, wherever we're ranked at the end of the season is better than what it is now just because of all the hard work we've put in.
What are your goals for the end of the season?
I think everyone has pretty much mentioned that their goal for the team is to go to the NCAA postseason. After the MVC Championships, we're going to be focused on being one of those 81 teams of the over 300 Division I teams that make it to the NCAA Regionals. And after that being one of the 30 teams that go to the NCAA Championship. There's a lot of teams that are disappointed if they're not able to accomplish that. We want to be known as one of the best teams in the country. And you have to be able to be one of the best teams to make it that far. As a coach, it's been a very neat transition to have our end goal go from wanting to win a conference championship to wanting to go far in the NCAA postseason. I think a lot of that is the culture and environment we have with our players and in our program with what they want to be able to accomplish.
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