A Look Ahead: Women excited to play as Roadrunners tee off today

Published 10:49 pm Sunday, September 14, 2014

When Dalton State College started its golf program last year, the men’s team jumped into action while the women’s program — which was short of personnel — postponed competition.

With a full women’s squad for the 2014-15 campaign, the Roadrunners believe they can compete at a high level from the start.

Both Dalton State teams tee off their seasons today in two-day tournaments hosted by the College of Coastal Georgia, with the men playing Sea Island Golf Club’s Retreat Course and the women playing Jekyll Island Golf Club’s Pine Lakes course.

“It’s extremely exciting,” Dalton State women’s coach Jim McGrew said. “It’s been a long time coming, and to make a decision last year to start competing this season was the right call.”

Dalton State, a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, launched athletics for the first time in the school’s four-year era in 2013 with men’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis and women’s volleyball. Women’s golf was originally supposed to be among that group, but for that sport it turned out that selling a program that didn’t exist proved difficult.

So did trying to convince student-athletes to even check out Dalton, which many perceived to be a small town.

“Anytime you start a program, it’s tough to get your name out there,” McGrew said, “and it was a challenge to get kids to come here and visit. But once we got them here we had about a 100 percent chance of signing them. The key for us was once we got them here, they wanted to be a part of our program.”

Two players McGrew convinced to join the program were junior college All-Americans Julia McQuilken and Erika Wadzinski, who came to Dalton State from Seminole State College in Sanford, Fla. The pair of juniors will lead the squad into its first match and hope to help start a winning tradition.

“It’s really cool, and we’re all really excited,” Wadzinski said. “Establishing a program is something that we’re all passionate about.”

In typical tournament play, five golfers will compete for each team, with the best four rounds each day counting toward the team score. Freshman Caroline Griffin and sophomore Rachel Rebne will join McQuilken and Wadzinski in playing for the team in the Coastal Georgia tournament. Freshmen Taylor Marie Griner and Ashley McDonald will also both play, but McGrew will determine which player will be a part of the Roadrunners’ five — and which will compete as an independent player — before the start of today’s round.

Like other sports at Dalton State, the golf teams will compete in the Southern States Athletic Conference this season after enduring independent status last season, when they were not eligible for postseason play.

Coastal Georgia’s women’s team won the conference title this past season, but the Roadrunners are ready to challenge everyone in the SSAC.

“We want other teams to know that we’re not going to be an easy team to play against, even though it’s our first year of competition,” McQuilken said.

While the men’s team has a year of competition behind it, Dalton State director of golf Ben Rickett is no less thrilled about getting started.

“It’s always an exciting time, and it’s nice to put your practice into a tournament setting,” said Rickett, who coaches the men’s team.

And the Roadrunners will get an immediate measure of what it takes to be great. Coastal Georgia’s men won the NAIA title this past season. 

“We start against the national champions,” Rickett said. “We are really going to be tested early, and it’s going to be an eye-opener to see where we stand.”

Dalton State will field a young team with only one member — junior Liam Nix — back from its inaugural team. Sophomores Sean Elliott, Mack Bruck and Austin Hughes, along with freshman Dalton Johnson, will join Nix on the five-man squad competing today. Tobi Ebner, a sophomore from Austria, will play as an independent.

Both teams will play a few more tournaments this fall before taking a break from competition for the winter, but the Roadrunners’ eyes are focused on the spring, when they want their play to peak as they shoot for postseason honors. The SSAC Championships will be held at Montgomery (Ala.) Country Club, with the men playing a 54-hole tournament on April 13-15 and the women playing 36 holes on April 18-19.

“This first tournament is a good test,” Rickett said, “but it’s really just a piece of us getting ready to compete when April gets here.”

Here’s a look ahead at what else is coming up in the area sports scene:

• In the “from our Local Sport Calendar files,” here’s a Dalton State event area youth soccer players should take note of — while Roadrunners soccer won’t begin competition until fall 2015, the school hired a director of soccer this summer, and Kerem Daser is eager to do some coaching.

Daser will host Coach K’s Super Skills Sessions, a free weekly clinic on Wednesdays from Sept. 24 to Nov. 19 at James Brown Park in Dalton. Instruction for ages 8-10 will be provided from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., with ages 11-14 from 6:30 to 7:30 and ages 15 and older from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

You can learn more about the clinic by writing to kdaser@daltonstate.edu or calling (404) 556-2311. You can list your sports clinics and camps in our Local Sports Calendar, which runs every Sunday, by sending a PDF or your brochure or the details in an email to sports@daltoncitizen.com.

• It’s another busy week for area high school softball and volleyball teams. Football gets a lot of well-deserved love during the fall, but don’t miss your chance to see your favorite school’s other teams in action, too. 

Ryne Dennis is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen. Have something you think he should highlight in “A Look Ahead”? Write to him at rynedennis@daltoncitizen.com.