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Covich builds WVU golf program from ground up

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Covich builds WVU golf program from ground up
by Chuck McGill, Sports editor

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sean Covich, the man hired to lead the rebirth of the West Virginia University men’s golf program, sent a text message to his wife last week. It was Wednesday, May 27, and Covich realized it was the anniversary of his introductory press conference in Morgantown.

“I can’t believe it’s been one year,” Covich messaged to his wife.

And it’ll still be another four months before the Meridian, Miss., native and the Mountaineers make their debut.

Covich is spending the 472-day wait between his date of hire and the 2015 season opener building a program from scratch. There was no home course, no players, no indoor facility, no golf van. He has checked all those items off his to-do list as he prepares for Missouri Tiger Turningstone Invitational on Sept. 6-7.

“There’s been so much to figure out,” he said. “Like where you’re going to practice, who is going to be here playing. I really didn’t have a game plan to get transfers in here, but it just worked out to get some seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. That was my goal, to not have eight or nine freshmen that first year.”

The roster is taking shape. He has players from neighboring states Pennsylvania and Ohio, and of course he is mining the Mountain State for talent. He is looking abroad, and players from Canada, Korea and Australia are in the fold.

“I searched under any and every rock,” Covich said.

The hometowns of Covich’s first two waves of recruits cannot be overlooked. The Morgantown climate is a hurdle he must clear in wooing golfers who want to play year-round. Golfers from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada developed their games in spite of that.

“I’ve been focusing on Canada because we are warmer to them,” Covich said. “We’ve had success with that ... hopefully we can kind of get a pipeline going there. I’ve got players from Ohio and Pennsylvania because they understand the region and the temperature and they’ve gotten good even though they’ve been up north.

“They’re not scared of it.”

He needs golfers who aren’t scared of anything.

Covich isn’t cutting corners or softening the schedule. There are five nationally ranked programs in the Big 12, and the league has produced PGA Tour stars like Masters champion Jordan Spieth, who played at Texas, Baylor golfer-turned-pro Jimmy Walker and former Oklahoma State star Rickie Fowler. Spieth and Walker are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in PGA Tour earnings this year.

“Come play against the best,” Covich said of his pitch to recruits.

The Mountaineers will play six events in the fall and seven in the spring. One of the fall highlights is the inaugural Mountaineer Intercollegiate, which will be held Oct. 19-20 at Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport. WVU will host Marshall, Penn State, Missouri, Mississippi State, Cincinnati, Connecticut, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Towson, Akron, Toledo, Bowling Green and Miami (Ohio) that weekend.

“I wanted the best schedule we could get,” Covich said.

That is, afterall, part of the selling point. Student-athletes can come help Covich lay the foundation for a program that has been dormant since 1982, a 33-year hiatus from Division I golf. The playing time is there for the taking. WVU has brokered deals with seven area golf courses to call home.

Now Covich can show off a 2,000-square foot indoor facility at the WVU Coliseum. The golf studio features an indoor golf simulator with the latest TrackMan technology, an indoor putting green and areas for chipping.

It is a place to take refuge during a snowstorm or bitter cold spell.

“It gives us a place to chip and putt and hit some balls,” Covich said. “It’s not only for when it’s cold and snowing, but if it’s 10 o’clock and they want to go in there and work on putting, have at it. It’s 365 days a year. That’s huge because obviously it snows, so if I can sell a recruit that it doesn’t matter what it is — rain, snow, light, dark — you can come here and get better.”

Covich spent the winter months showcasing how golfers can get better year-round in Morgantown. He is an avid user of Instagram, where has posted hundreds of photos during his time as an assistant coach at Mississippi State and head coach at WVU. He posts photos of the Mountaineers’ home courses, the new indoor facility and images of his players hitting golf balls inside places like the WVU football team’s indoor practice facility.

Programs like Illinois, ranked in the top five nationally this past season, Ohio State, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Penn State have shown Covich the blueprint for a northern golf program. He knows he can assemble the talent to compete in the Big 12 and with southern-based programs.

In his introductory press conference last May, Covich said he wanted to win “right away.” He can’t believe it has been a year since that day, but he can’t wait to finally tee it up.

- See more at: http://www.charlestondailymail.com/article/20150604/DM03/150609558/1309#sthash.CxPpxUvj.dpuf
 
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