With both the women’s and the men’s basketball seasons coming to an end, it is time to focus on the docket of spring sports that FLC is bringing the way of the students in 2017. Here is a spring sports Q&A with the head coaches at FLC for this year.
Guy Begay, Head coach of both the men’s and the women’s golf team.
Q: What are your expectations for both the men’s and the women’s team going into each of their seasons?
A: “For the girls I feel like we are going to get a little bit more competitive and a little bit more experienced. We still aren't quite up to being super competitive yet but we are getting closer and closer every year.
For the men’s, I feel like we should be able to contend for a few tournaments here and there and possibly win one. As far as the conference tournament, we have one of our better chances at winning the tournament overall and qualifying for the NCAA super regionals. “
Q: For the men, who are the key players to watch for the season?
A: “Seniors Michael Thomas and Mitchell Donley are two players to watch. Hugh Taylor has been our number one player statistics wise and Matt Huntley, who is a sophomore, has been our number one but has kind of moved back a few shots. Those four are my core group of guys. It is going to be tough replacing Mike and Mitch at the end of the season.”
Q: Same Question for the women?
A: “Key players are Summer Vigil, freshman, and sophomore Isabella Martinez. Those two are my number one and number two players and our success is really determined by how well they play their particular round each tournament.”
Q: What are your main goals for this year for the men’s team? What would it take for you to consider this season a success?
A: “Our goal every year is to make it to the super regionals. They take the top ten teams out of 25 in our region and the only way to qualify for that is to win our conference tournament.”
Q: Same question for the women?
A: “We just want to continue to get better in the three, four and five slots so we don't have to rely so heavily on Summer and Isabella to play well. We are only in our third year as a women’s program.”
Julie Decker, head coach of women’s lacrosse.
Q: What are your expectations for the season?
A: “We have high expectations this year. Although, we are a pretty young team. Most of the team is sophomore and freshman who make up more than half of the team. Although we are young we are very talented. We are pretty excited, we got ranked fourth in the preseason poll, but we definitely expect to finish higher and catch people off guard.”
Q: What would you say your biggest strength is as a team?
A: “Our biggest strength right now is our ability to make adjustments.”
Q: Who are two or three key players to watch this season?
A: “Senior, Megan Longtain is one. She was voted co-defensive player of the year for the RMAC. Taylor Cabrera who is a junior and an attack midfielder. And third would be Nikki Fry. She is a senior this year, but I think she is ready to have a breakout year.”
Q: If you had one goal for the season so you could look back and say that this season was a success, what would that goal be?
A: “We have a lot of goals this season. That is our goal is to win the RMAC championship but I think we would consider the RMAC a success if we are fighting every minute of every game and sometimes I think that is a tough thing to do is just play a full 60 minute game, you know, throughout the entire season. We definitely want to beat Regis, something that this team has never done.”
Dave Hagan, men’s and women’s cycling head coach.
Q: what are your expectations for this cycling season for the men and women?
A: “Well we actually have two season going on right now, we have BMX season going on and they have had a couple of training races that they have been too the last couple of weeks. We have three men and one woman coming with us to nationals. Our top male and top female have potential to get into the finals and that would be a good success.
For road season we are looking to start up here soon. We have a pretty good group of men here. We are looking really strong. On the women’s side we are young. We have three freshmen and one junior who will be our main players who are racing road this year. “
Q: If you had one goal for the season so you could look back and say that this season was a success, what would that goal be?
A: “If our women develop they can hold their own. They have got some learning and some experience to go through to actually win some of the women’s races as a team, but they can place well enough.
I really think that if our guys can race well enough together in our conference season coming up that we can win. I feel they could finish top three as a team at any one of those races at nationals.”
Elle Fracker, head coach of women’s softball.
Q: What are the expectations for the season?
A: “Well we started out kind of rough and, you know, there is no getting around that, it is what it is, we have a young team and you can only use that as an excuse so many times. At some point it all has to come together and you have to figure out a way to win. We are hoping that with the losses that we have had so far that we have kind of gotten over that ‘we’re a young team with a young pitching staff thing’ and that things will start to click a lot quicker.”
Q: Who are your two or three players to watch over the course of the season?
A: “We have a solid group of upperclassmen and you could really pick any of our upperclassmen starters. Angelique Elemen hit over 400 last year as a freshman in conference so that is something that you hope she replicates this year. We expect a lot out of all of our seniors. Allison Young, who is playing center field right now, has really had a nice start to the beginning of the season.”
Q: If you had one goal for the season so you could look back and say that this season was a success, what would that goal be?
A: “I think that a successful season to me at this point now, and it might have been a different answer at the beginning, but I think at this point now is to realize the talent that we have and have it kind of translate into playing better than we are playing right now. I think that if we start to win some of those close games and we put ourselves in better positions in games, that is going to be successful to me moving forward.