North Carolina State University Athletics
Behind The Scenes With Tony Haynes: From Nowhere to Somewhere
4/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
April 30, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Imagine a Division one school suddenly deciding to add football to its roster of varsity sports. Then imagine that football program emerging as one of the best teams in its conference at the tender age of two.
Just imagine how inconceivable that sounds before considering the remarkable story of the NC State women's golf program. So you didn't know NC State had a women's golf program? We'll forgive you for not knowing this time. After dropping the program in 1986, NC State was without a women's golf team for 13 years before reinstating the program in the fall of 2000.
Now here's the REAL kicker to the story: A program that didn't even have a schedule or a coach in place at this time two years ago is now headed to the NCAA East Regional in Baton Rouge, LA from May 9-11. And you thought the real life tale of pitcher Jim Morris in the recently released motion picture "The Rookie" was remarkable? Coach Page Marsh's Pack was extended a bid into the regional on Monday.
"If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year would we get a regional bid, I would have said that I wasn't sure we could do that," Marsh said. "But by Monday, I was definitely expecting to hear 'yes' and would have been disappointed if we didn't get a bid. I really felt like we had played well, but we were on the bubble and to a certain extent it's out of your hands. I was thrilled and relieved."
Success is nothing new to Marsh who had a standout playing career as an amateur. An All-ACC performer at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1984 and '85, Marsh posted three individual tournament titles and a total of 15 top-10 finishes in her college career. She also won the prestigious North Carolina Amateur Championship six times. Marsh's many accomplishments really came into focus 12-months ago when she was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
"My assistant (Josh Gregory) and I are very similar in that we had strong playing backgrounds," Marsh said. "We have been players and we know what it takes to develop someone, not only for this level but for the next. I'm sure my background has helped in recruiting. It's also helped me become a better coach."
As expected, the road through season number one was filled with more than a few divots and water hazards. In 2000-2001, the Wolfpack came home dead last in the ACC Championships after finishing no better than 10th in any tournament. But by year two, improvement was quite noticeable as the squad posted fourth and sixth place finishes, respectively, in a pair of tournaments late in the fall. The Wolfpack then caught fire in March, winning three consecutive events before eventually settling for a third place finish in the ACC Championships.
No one has been more surprised by the program's quicker than expected success than the head coach.
"You lay the foundation, but you really don't know how long it's going to take for things to come together," Marsh said. "I just had an exceptional group this year. I also have a lot of good people around me. We all got on the same page, we had the same goals and we were working in the same direction. When we had early success in the spring, they saw that all the hard work and all the things that Josh and I had been stressing were paying off."
From the time she was hired in July of 2000 until the team's first fall tournament, Marsh only had four months to put a team together. That's four months to recruit players, four months to hire an assistant coach and four months to build a program. The first recruiting class was led by Malin Claesson, a walkon from Kalmar, Sweden who has been one of the Pack's best players this spring. Following year one, Marsh managed to put together a strong recruiting class that was thrown into the fire right away. You might say that NC State has been getting great freshman and sophomore leadership. There certainly isn't any senior leadership on a team that's been competing for only two years.
"I've gotten great advice," Marsh answered when asked about the long odds she faced at the beginning. "Men's coach Richard Sykes has been wonderful to me. It's not been just Josh and me; it's been Richard, it's been Nora Lynn Finch (Senior Associate A.D./Senior Women's Administrator) and all the people that told me to be patient. I only had a four-month lead-time and so I didn't overspend my scholarships and I got us the best schedule we could play. I told our first recruits that they would be the founding mothers and they would be able to look back on something they created."
And what a creation it was. In less than 24 months, the 'founding mothers' have gone from nowhere to somewhere.
