Alan Babbitt [00:00:03] Welcome to the Hope College Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast. This is Alan Babbitt, sports information director at Hope College. I am looking forward each week to bring you interviews with Hope College coaches, athletic staff, student-athletes as we talk about life in the Orange and Blue. Our special guest today is head women's golf coach Greg Stafford. Coach Stafford has been leading the flying Dutch since 2009. Prior to that, he spent two years as a volunteer assistant with women's golf. We'll look forward to hearing from him about what the Flying Dutch have been working on this fall. Welcome. Welcome, Greg.
Greg Stafford [00:00:38] Thank you very much for having me on. I appreciate it.
Alan Babbitt [00:00:42] Obviously it has been an unusual season, to say the least, with everything going on with the pandemic and no competition but the opportunity to practice. I had the chance to come out and see you at one of your practices out at the Ravines Golf Club down in Saugatuck and watching the ladies work on their game and get prepared and sharp for hopefully a successful spring season. What has coaching this fall then like for you?
Greg Stafford [00:01:13] Well, I like to tell the ladies all the time we're making the best out of a very difficult situation and I really think the girls did this year. It was a difficult situation. I thought we came through about as good as can be expected. We had a very good, fun fall year, and I think it got us ready for the spring where we're hopefully ready to compete.
Alan Babbitt [00:01:37] You have a roster of 14. How did you set up practice? What did you kind of do to help them be able to work on their games, play golf as well? I mean, there's nothing like just getting on the course and playing that makes you better. How did you try to juggle all the logistics with that?
Greg Stafford [00:01:57] We tried to keep, every Saturday but one we competed, played 18 holes. Tuesday, Thursday, beginning of the year, we would play nine holes each Tuesday, Thursday, and then we would practice Monday and Friday and work on individual stuff. But later in the year, we switched our Thursdays to where we were just playing scrambles with the team for kind of a light enjoyment. The girls really enjoyed that.
Alan Babbitt [00:02:26] A lot of emotions going on. I mean, obviously, it's an unsettling time due to the pandemic and it's tough, you got upperclassman this is not what they signed up for when they thought and dreamed about their college careers. Talk about how you've tried to help each other out through this because it's just not easy. It's just frustrating for everyone. I kind of wonder how you guys kind of tried to tackle that.
Greg Stafford [00:02:56] We were therapeutic for both. Obviously in our country right now, this is a very trying time. I really needed something to do and the girls needed something to do. It was just a blessing for all parties involved that we had something to look forward to. Five days a week, we went out and worked hard and tried to put everything else behind and just say that our time on the golf course was precious, and let's enjoy it. For us, it seemed to work.
Alan Babbitt [00:03:28] What did you see it as far as an improvement from the team throughout the fall that you would point to? You know, they made really good strides in ...
Greg Stafford [00:03:38] I've got to say right from the beginning that two big surprises, very pleasant, were sophomores Rita Cheney and Grace Van Dellen. Both improved a lot, which will help the team. Then, senior Abby Meder, who is usually played two or three her whole career, qualified. No. 1 this fall. She's improved and just had a great fall. We're really looking forward to the spring honestly.
Alan Babbitt [00:04:13] Golf is a matter of repetition and doing the same thing over and over again in the right form. With that, was there some time at the range in addition to playing? Or how do you work on that part and organize that for everyone to get some practice and those fundamentals honed and sharpened?
Greg Stafford [00:04:34] When we're not competing in our basic practice is simple. Every day we have to chip and putt and hit on the range. My goal is every day you should chip or pitch as much as you hit on the range and putt probably twice as much as that. We spend those off days, we're just working on those three things all the time. Obviously with the chipping is we get them in the sand and work them out of sand traps. Golf is a team and an individual sport. They're very good at practice. They know what they need to work on. They know what they've got to do at practice. They get right at it. We just alternate through the three stations.
Alan Babbitt [00:05:20] With your team, it was a really young team last year, but a good core of them came through. Did having that experience kind of help in that they kind of knew what needed to be done and anyone that was new and coming aboard could see by them what to focus on and how you guys were approaching this fall season?
Greg Stafford [00:05:39] I am blessed to have as captains, Abby Meter and Jordyn Roux. They're just both seniors, obviously, but they've been around for three years. They really pride themselves in the role. And They do a tremendous job with the rest of the team. They really are the ones who get everybody ready and make us ready to play. They do just an outstanding job. They're going to be around this year still, but I'm already missing them for next year.
Alan Babbitt [00:06:08] How did you guys wrap up the fall? I think it was two weeks ago I saw some photos. Was there a fun way you kind of just ended the fall?
Greg Stafford [00:06:18] Yes. We have what we call our Ryder Cup day. We had everybody play and we played in teams of two. We played three different types of format during the 18 holes. So one through six, we played alternate shot. Then we played six holes of best ball. We played six holes, a scramble. It's just a fun way to end the season. After Thursday's playing scramble, the girls like that competitive part. It's really fun. It was very actually was a very competitive tournament and nobody won. The top two teams tied with 76s.
Alan Babbitt [00:06:52] Oh, excellent. That's a great some great golf and they're probably much better than if I was out on the course with you. That's not saying much though. But I know watching and having seen Abby and Jordyn and few others compete last season and I'm really looking forward to seeing them in the spring and that obviously the goal. Fingers crossed. March 27th will be the first in MIAA Jamboree. Before we get to cut out the spring sets up and what we hope to happen obviously sometime now between now and March 27th. What will the golfers do now? Obviously, going into Michigan, winter won't be able to get an 18 round for much longer. What's what do you guys talk about and what can they do to kind of be as sharp as they can be and work on their games during the winter?
Greg Stafford [00:07:43] I've got to be careful now, but I can't be around much now because we used to have 19 weeks. Now it's days. I believe it's 114 days we can use. I can't really use up a lot of those days now until the spring. What the ladies will do all winter and now is the golf room (in the Dow Center) is open. Two can go in at a time for an hour and hit. So first of all, we take a month off or so after the fall practice season. It's going to be different this year and then again everything's different. They leave in November and don't come back until January. When they come back in January, they should start hitting. OK. From there, we will probably, as it gets into February, I'll take a couple, the top six or so to Maple Hill in Grandville and we could hit out of the stalls there in the heated stalls just so we're hitting like balls and get a feel for what's going. Another thing that's very important is our trainer, Eric Bly, is Titleist certified. He has each of the ladies on a program. I give him a little bit of leeway right way now. But when the second semester starts, I start making phone calls and texts and find out if they're going to see Eric for doing their workouts. The good kids. I don't have to check on. they're doing two or three times a week. But I want everybody to do it at least once a week. It's very beneficial for us. It's golf-specific, so it works wonders for us. It's going to be different this year by not being able to go south where I feel that's where we get ready to play a match. Everybody's going to be in the same boat. But that first match. I'm going to be like a cat with a long tail in a room full of rocking chairs because, we just we don't you know, you're not going to know what to expect because you haven't been out on the course. If you look at that date, there's a very good chance that that will be one of the first or if not the first time we were outside all year. Beginning of the year, it's going to be a curve. We're not going to go out, shoot our low score, early in the spring.
Alan Babbitt [00:10:13] With the format, each school gets a chance to host. I'm looking here at the schedule, eight different rounds. Does that give a little bit of time? Obviously, it's still only eight. So there's not a lot of competition. Does that give a little time to kind of get your feet under you hopefully shoot your best year as you guys go through that jamboree schedule?
Greg Stafford [00:10:38] I guess so. My only thing is the way I look at it as a coach, even as a coach, anything, not just golf, I'm concerned about us, not about the other people. In golf, we're on a completely equal playing field. It's completely level. All teams are doing it the same. That's all I can ask for. We have as good a shot as anybody and that's what we're looking at as far. I think we did it really right as far as the eight matches because they're so compact and compressed there that if one gets rain or snowed out, it's just thrown away. We don't make it up. So right now, the girls are only missing two days of school, which is wonderful. The schedule is great. Is it going to be like a normal spring? No. But is it going to be a whole lot better than playing ourselves? Absolutely. And we're looking forward to it.
Alan Babbitt [00:11:35] You've been the head coach since 2009 here for the Flying Dutch. In 2007, you started as a volunteer assistant.
Greg Stafford [00:11:41] That seems like a long time ago, Alan. I didn't realize that.
Alan Babbitt [00:11:48] How did you become an assistant coach for Hope College Women's Golf? Do you remember how that came about?
Greg Stafford [00:11:59] I knew (then head coach Eva Dean Folkert). One of my girls from Godwin actually came and played at Hope. I would go to all the matches and even knew I was about ready to retire from Godwin. She said, 'I can't give you any money, but I'd love to have you come out help if you'd like to.' I guess she knew an easy mark when she saw one. And I said, well, yes, I'd love to. That's how it started. And I really enjoyed it. And I never really thought of being the head coach, honestly. And I just thought, well, Eva is going do this forever and this is a blast. I love this. And then she became the athletic director and she couldn't coach. It was just like, would you like to move into this spot? I wanted to stay coaching. So I said, well, yes, of course, I will. it was just kind of like a couple of years thing. I was just retired. I wanted to do something. But I'm having so much fun, I haven't given it up yet.
Alan Babbitt [00:13:02] What is it about it that you enjoy so much?
Greg Stafford [00:13:08] I love athletics, I have been around athletics all my life. To be able to work with the Hope students is just extra special. I know everybody talks, and we have been very successful on the course and it's wonderful, but I really do look at that we're even more successful in the classroom. For me, that is the best part of it. Just to be able to work with such student-athletes and scholars, it's just a wonderful opportunity for me. I really enjoy it. Every year we have a ton of girls who are Academic All-Americans. It's just awesome.
Alan Babbitt [00:13:50] A big thing with being a college coach is recruiting and trying to find talent. You've done a good job with finding that. How important is it to have that balance where you have the academic excellence in addition to a competitive golf program as finding those kids and keeping that kind of pipeline going? Recruiting isn't easy. It doesn't matter the sport, finding the right kid is, part of the challenge.
Greg Stafford [00:14:18] Very, very true. At Hope, I'm looking for a special kid. I'm not hiding it from anybody. Everybody I talk to, I say, look, it takes a really special person to be at a Division III college, not just at home, but anywhere. You have to love golf and you've got to give things up. We have to have special people to do this: people who love the game and want to be part of a team. If you're an individual golfer and all you care about you, I tell her this is not for you because we really work it as a team sport. It works for us. Part of the team sport is with us, the academics just come hand-in-hand. That fits in wonderful Hope College. We're a high-achieving college. We get a lot of excellent golfers here who are 4.0 students.
Alan Babbitt [00:15:12] Coaching has been part of your life, your career at Godwin Heights as a teacher and starting the golf program there. What is it about the game of golf? Where did that start from you as far as you starting to play and then that lifelong passion for you as continued to grow?
Greg Stafford [00:15:32] Long story, Alan. No, not really. I'm really not a golf coach. I was the assistant varsity football coach for about a million years that the baseball coach for even longer at Godwin Heights. And I loved doing them. My father got sick. He had pancreatic cancer. He was living with one of my brothers in Flint. I stopped coaching because I wanted to be with him. When I came back. obviously, other people have taken those jobs. We had never had a women's golf team and I just started messing around having girls that weren't involved in other sports in the hallways after school hit Wiffle balls. It went from there. We were lucky enough to have a very good program and it was great. I think I did it for about the last seven years there. From there I switched right over and I started helping Eva. Actually, I coached football and baseball forever. Early in my career, I even coached basketball for two or three years too. So I realized, though, that was sports around the clock. I was coaching three sports a year and I wasn't seeing my wife Joan very much.
Alan Babbitt [00:16:43] What is it about coaching that you just an obvious they have an affinity for?
Greg Stafford [00:16:49] I just like working with kids. If it wasn't coaching, I'm sure I would be doing something else with kids. But I like to tell people that I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. I actually did my whole life something that I was happy doing and I thought I was put on earth to do. I feel I was brought here to coach. I know that may sound silly, but I just have loved coaching all along. It's just been a blessing.
Alan Babbitt [00:17:23] Was there a role model or something that you had as far as it may be emulated that coach? Anyone who made kind of an impact on you when you were growing up and playing? Or how did you find kind of that that you knew this was my calling?
Greg Stafford [00:17:45] I guess early in my career at Godwin, a legendary basketball coach, Gene Nienhuis. I picked up a lot from a lot of people. A lot of coaches, very honestly, I learned from almost the reverse barometer where I would watch them perform and go, no, that's not me. I can't coach that way. t I learned from everybody. I would say baseball probably (Hall of Fame Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds manager) Sparky Anderson. Everybody loved the Spark and, you know, he was just such a good with the guys, you know, stuff like that. But it was more of just kind of a hodgepodge of my personality. I think we all, early in our careers, stumble a little bit, too. We have to find out who we are. I'm not a yeller and a screamer, I'm more of a let's talk about this. Especially with golf, it doesn't help to be that way anyway. So for me, the personality just kind of we're very good into it.
Alan Babbitt [00:18:58] I've heard this a lot from not only coaches I've talked to at Hope, but obviously, my career when I was a journalist is, kids can see authenticity and they know when you're being you and who you are. That's kind of key to being able to connect with them, that they kind of feel you're just you're being authentic with them I imagine that's probably critical for a coach.
Greg Stafford [00:19:25] I've always believed that from a very young age that kids have excellent radar and they can tell fake right away. I don't know what it is, but they can. If you want to do this line of work, you have to be authentic. You can't be fake or you're not going to last long. At least that's my opinion.
Alan Babbitt [00:19:44] Do you watch a lot of golf? Do you get a chance to play much?
Greg Stafford [00:19:50] I'm playing more. More than ever now. My wife was ill for a very long time and I just kind of stopped playing because it was not that I'm great. But, you know, it was just so frustrating to go out and be so horrible. So until she passed, I didn't play much. Then I had some back issues, but I think I finally turned the corner. I'm playing a lot right now. And I'm actually thinking for my age, not too bad.
Alan Babbitt [00:20:20] That's a good place to be. I had a chance to get to know your wife Joan before. She just had a wonderful, kind spirit. Obviously, any coach, you need a supportive spouse to put up with all the nights and weekends and stuff. I don't put want you on the spot, but thinking about her and kind of what she's meant to you. I imagine she's still kind of close to you as you coach each of the seasons.
Greg Stafford [00:20:50] Well, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. We Both grew up in Grand Rapids and she taught fifth grade at Godwin Heights. I was in the high school and that's where we met. We never would have come back here, but she went to Hope. We got a place here on Lake Macatawa years ago and we would come back on weekends. That's kind of how I got into Hope athletics and everything. We just found we were both athletic and have been involved in athletics all along. Everybody says it, but it's absolutely true. She was the best coach's wife in the world. It helped, I think, because she was a teacher, too. So she wasn't getting home at three. She was getting home at five, six o'clock. Also, I was getting home probably a little bit later. There's a lot of give and take if you're coaching two or three sports and trying to do it right in high school or anywhere, You don't see your spouse a lot. There just has to be an understanding. We just had a great relationship and she was my rock or my pillar forever, very honestly, was just a wonderful relationship.
Alan Babbitt [00:22:00] It was good to know her. Tough obviously that she passed, but we're grateful for her and grateful that she helped bring you to Hope. It's been a lot of fun watching your teams. We're hoping for the best this spring and seeing the Flying Dutch out on the golf course and compete with the best in the MIAA. Thanks for joining us on the Orange and Blue podcast. Greg, Enjoy the break. We'll see you very soon in March. Hopefully competing.
Greg Stafford [00:22:33] I want to thank you again for having me, Alan. I appreciate it. I loved it. I'll bend your ear any time you let me. Thank you very much.
Alan Babbitt [00:22:42] That sounds great. Thanks, Greg.
