Men’s golf and women’s golf along with lacrosse, softball and track and field all begin their season this month. The Independent sat down with all of the head coaches and a few players to get the inside scoop on all your Fort Lewis College spring sports teams. All varsity sports compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Men’s Golf Looking To Make Noise in the Playoffs This Season
2017 Finishes: 5th in RMAC Tournament, April 2017
Head Coach: Guy Begay, fourth season with FLC
Asst. Coach: Jim Foltz, fourth season with FLC
Key Players: Senior Hugh Taylor and Junior Matt Huntley
Recap and Outlook: The men’s team is looking to make a big jump this season. Last year they finished the RMAC tournament in fifth place and were on the outside looking in when it came to the Regional tournament. This season they plan to change that.
Huntley and Taylor are the real leaders of this squad. Huntley competed in all nine tournaments and had a career low of 67 in a tournament last year. In 27 rounds of golf, his average score was a 74.7. Taylor was an All-RMAC second team member last year and was the MVP of the team. He averaged a score of 73.83 in 27 rounds.
Coach Begay on last season: “Matt and Hugh are bigger contributors to the program this year. Their leadership obviously and their playing ability and skill levels and their ability to keep the score right around even par or below was a huge help last year and will be this year.”
Coach Begay’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “A solid goal for the men’s, a reasonable goal is to follow up what we did last year in the conference tournament with a fifth place finish. I think that would be a realistic goal, honestly… Obviously our goal is to win the conference tournament and get into the regional field and from that get into the national qualifying.”
Taylor’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “Individually, I want an individual tournament win. I have had a few close calls now so that’s the one thing I want to take off before I’m done with college golf. As a team, the whole season the goal is to make it to regionals which would come from a strong showing at conference.”
Women’s Golf looks to Prove Program Staying Power
2017 Record: 9th in RMAC Tournament, April 2017
Head Coach: Guy Begay, fourth season with FLC
Asst. Coach: Jim Foltz, fourth season with FLC
Key Players: Sophomore Summer Vigil and Junior Isabella Martinez
Recap and Outlook: The women’s golf team at FLC is going into their fourth full year. In the first three seasons, their best finish was third place, but they are looking to improve drastically this season. The mild winter has been a godsend for the team because they can practice more, Begay said. They have been able to work on specific parts of their games and getting better as an entire team.
Martinez and Vigil are looking to make a huge impact this year. Martinez competed in all nine tournaments last year and is believed by the team to be vastly improved. Vigil was the MVP of the team last season, competed in all tournaments, and averaged a score of just about seven over par.
Coach Begay on last season: “We have a solid one, two, and three with Summer Vigil being our top ranked player right now and Isabella not far behind her. Last season was a huge learning experience.”
Coach Begay’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “On the women’s side, we just want to keep moving up the ladder. As the RMAC keeps getting better and we get better it is harder to move up that ladder but we will get there. I think, on the women’s side, if we finish realistically in ninth or tenth place. But I think a solid goal is sixth or seventh.”
Vigil’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “As a team as a whole, just trying to improve on our scores every tournament. Do better and try to play more as a team and just kind of support each other through the rough holes that we have. For myself maybe just playing more consistent rounds each tournament.”
New Coach, New Identity for Lacrosse
2017 Record: 9-7 (6-3)
Head Coach: Sean Claussen, first season as head coach with FLC
Asst. Coach: Anna Salemo, first season with FLC
Key Players: #6 Senior Taylor Cabrera, #21 Freshman Anna Dennison, #1 Junior Kelli Warmouth
Recap and Outlook: FLC’s women’s lacrosse team finished in fourth place in the RMAC last season and overall had a very good year. They made the RMAC tournament and beat a good Westminster team in the first round. After that, they lost to the number two team in the nation, Lindenwood, 12-3, ending their season.
Last year’s head coach Julie Decker left after the season and now Claussen has taken over. Claussen was part of the men’s club program for awhile before joining was an assistant coach. He was an assistant for four years for each of the last two different head coaches. Claussen brings a passion to the program that was unparalleled in when Decker was here, he said. The team was voted sixth in the RMAC and is looking to get back to the tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
Coach Clausen on last season: “I am very passionate about the program. We have worked our way from a lower level team, all the way to finishing second in the RMAC. This is the dream job for me right now.”
Coach Clausen’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “We have very, very small numbers. There wasn’t much recruiting done the last couple of years so it is going to be a battle to keep kids healthy and playing at a high level… We have an amazing level of talent on the team, a very, very high level of talent.”
Cabrera’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “We feel like we are underdogs this season coming in. They see our roster and see the youth on our roster and we are just out here to prove that we are still in the top two or three and we want to make that known and make some statements in games this year.”
Softball Swinging Their Way Back To Relevance
2017 Record: 6-43 (5-35)
Head Coach: Elle Fracker, third season with FLC
Asst. Coach: Stephanie Roan, first season with FLC
Key Players: #27 Junior Angelique Elemen, #1 Sophomore transfer Mandy Lorenson, #72 Senior Lauren Caldwell
Recap and Outlook: The softball team had a rough season last year. They were forced to play all of their home games in Aztec, New Mexico, about 45 minutes away from Durango, last season due to renovations to the home fields at FLC. This team was and is still very young. Last season they had nine freshman and this upcoming year they have eight.
Speaking to many of the players, there is an unparalleled excitement about this team and about this year. This team was voted to be tied for last place in the RMAC by their peers, and will be coming out with something to prove.
Coach Fracker on last season: “Our whole focus is on this year and moving forward and continuing to change the culture of what we have going on. We want to see fresh and new with a different identity out there.”
Coach Fracker’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “I think a successful season to us is going to be obviously having wins, which is the easiest way to look at it, but if we can come off and say that from game one to game 55 in our regular season we didn’t hit plateaus, we didn’t get complacent with things, we didn’t beat ourselves. We want to come off the field and feel good about every single game.”
Caldwell’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “Guns blazin. We are going to be great. I expect us to do well. I expect all of us to put 100% of ourselves into this game and into each other rather than just playing for ourselves… My goal is to rank somewhere where we can get to the tournament.”
Track and Field Looks to Run Away From Competition
Coach Coon was email interviewed
2017 Finishes: 11th in the indoor RMAC championships, 14th in the outdoor RMAC championships
Head Coach: Joshua Coon, first full season with FLC
Asst. Coach: Brett Sublett, fourth season with FLC
Key Players: Senior Becca Bramley, Senior Erin Renner, Freshman Amber Johnson
Recap and Outlook: Last season, the women’s track and field teams did their best with the tools that they had. Their head coach, Mark Dutro, retired just before the season, leaving the team coachless for awhile. FLC then hired Coon.
Coon coached at Colorado Christian University for four years (2012-2015) and was successful in his tenure there. He coached the schools’ first NCAA All-American and had six athletes earn Academic All-RMAC honors. Coon brings a different mindset to the program and this should lead to a successful year for track and field. “Consistency in training and taking care of the ‘little things’,” Coon said.
Coach Coon on last season: “We needed a reboot in culture after being coachless for most of last season during the hiring process. We have great student-athletes and that is coming along well.”
Coach Coon’s goals and expectations for the upcoming year: "Coach Creech and I will be looking for the team to stay consistent, take care of each other and embrace the process of improvement. The racing will take care of itself if they do that."
Bramley goals and expectations for the upcoming year: “The goal would be to make it to nationals for the 10k. I am definitely more of a distance person than a sprinter. It’s hard for the team for track and field because there are so many different events and obviously we get points and stuff but its different. We just want to perform well.”