[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We have two former Wichita State golfers with us to discuss First Tee Greater Wichita program and its new building. The First Tees Steve Hatchett Learning center is at McDonald Golf Course. It opened in March. Learning center is part of a $3 million project that includes a driving range, putting and chipping area. The Learning center with indoor outdoor hitting bays, spaces for homework help and tutoring. Corey Noviscohn is program director for First Tee. Calvin Pearson is vice president of the Board of directors. We should also mention Bobby Berry who is at Wichita State as assistant Dean for students and experience. He's also on the Board of directors. Corey played on Wichita State's NCAA regional team in 1998. He led the Shockers in stroke average in 96, 97 and 98. Earned All Missouri Valley Conference honors in 1998. Calvin played on MVC title teams in 2011, 12 and 13. Those teams went to the NCAAs in 2011, 12 and 13. And Calvin was at all Missouri Valley conference golfer in 2012 and 13.
So first tee is a national organization. It started in 1997. The local chapter opened in 2016. Corey, let's start by telling us about First Tee. How do you describe the mission of this group?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: The mission is to just get rid of any barriers that are involved with the game of golf for our community.
Golf has a history of being on the expensive side and we're trying to knock those barriers down for kids.
It is a low cost to no cost way to get your child involved in golf. But also along the way we try to get those kids to be good kids. We try to build what they call game changers in our community.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Calvin, why are you on the board of directors? What's your reason for being involved in this group?
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Yeah, so golf has done so much for me in my life starting in South Africa.
My dad was a professional at a golf course there, so spent a lot of time at a golf course and then obviously worked my way to be good enough to be able to get a full ride for Wichita State University where I competed four years. And also just the life lessons and the connections that golf has has done for me has been invaluable. So I after I played professionally for a few years and I knew after I was done with that, I wanted to find a way to give back to the game of golf that what it has given me. So First Tee was a natural fit, obviously being golf focused. So reached out to Trent and Corey and to see if I could be on the board and there was a position opening. So, yeah, that's kind of my main reasoning is just to give back what this game has done for me and to maybe continue to pay it forward and help kids in the future to maybe get some opportunities that I got through the game of golf.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: So Corey is program director. Describe your duties at First Tee.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: I'm in charge of pretty much all of the operations, which includes paid coaches, volunteers, scheduling the classes, building the classes, writing the lesson plans for the classes. We have a spring, a summer, a fall, and now with this new building, we're going to have a winter program. So there are two paid staff members full time, myself and Trent Jones, our executive director. He's in charge of raising money and getting out there in the community and making sure they're aware of what we do at the first tee. And that's pretty much anything that we have that needs to be done. I'll handle it, or Trent will handle it.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: We talked about Calvin and his motivations for getting involved, staying involved in the game of golf. What's your motivation?
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Very similar to what he was saying. I played Wichita State and then golf's pretty much given me everything that I had. Any opportunity that I have, I either met that person on the golf course or played with them. And I just kind of floated around after I played professionally for a while, like Calvin, and then figured out that that was not the route that was going to be for me, but I wanted to give back in any way that I could. I coached and continue to coach boys and girls golf at Capon Mount Carmel and saw that there was a need for kids to get into the game. When I played at capon in the 90s, early 90s, every high school, a golf team, boys and girls. And then when I started coaching in 2012, I saw that there were a lot of high schools that didn't have girls teams and boys teams. So we tried to figure out a way to get those kids involved. We found that the cost to get in for that was a barrier for those kids. And then last year, happy to report that we have pretty much all of the south and west combined, but all the high schools have both boys and girls teams. And we had about 35 kids that had gone through our First Tee program playing high school golf in the city of Wichita. So we are having an impact rather fast in our community, which was good to see.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: So First Tee is helping populate city league golf.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: We are trying to. So, you know, a lot of those kids are beginners. A lot of the kids have sets and clothes actually that we have given those kids.
So we're eliminating that barrier of giving those kids sets. West High and heights. They have. Pretty much all of the kids have sets that we have given to them. And we outfitted their team with their team shirt. Last year we got a great donation from PGA golfer Sam Stevens, who donated shirts and we gave those to those kids. So having a pretty good impact already.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Okay, Calvin, the new building, what kind of things does it open up for this for the first TEE program?
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Yeah. So as Corey had mentioned, having full year programming is going to be a huge, huge benefit. Just to make sure we are providing consistent programming through the kids and they have something consistent to be a part of for the whole year. And I think kind of the biggest deal is this indoor space and this zip code in this community that allows a kid to or one of our participants to have a place to go after school if they need something constructive to do to fill their time. We offer them time here. It doesn't have to be during programming only. So helping them with the game of golf, but then also outside of the game of golf as well. We're not just trying to build excellent golfers that every single one of them go to college. We want to have a bigger impact on just making them well rounded members of society and giving them the opportunity where they can, they can enhance that. So I know Corey might talk about this a little bit later, but kind of the things we're doing from a programming standpoint outside of golf, in terms of helping kids prep for college and providing them tutoring assistance that has just as much weight on the golf side. So this facility gives us that ability to be able to do these things and move forward. We're still in the early stages of finalizing how we want that to look, but we are making inroads. Corey and Trent are. They just been so amazing for us the first years of organization. So that's kind of my hope for the building. And it looks like we're trending in that direction.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Corey, describe the plans for the schoolwork, the homework, that aspect of this.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yes. We started what we have coined the first TEA Junior Academy. We hand picked 18 kids or 20 kids to pilot this organization's Junior Academy.
And we have made some fantastic inroads on that already. We have met three or four times with those kids. They're going to help develop their kids that have been in our program for a minimum of two years. They're going to help make our Program better. And that's all aspects of the program within that, we also are providing tutoring for those kids. And with those kids, they have projects that they're going to have to complete. 25 hours they're going to have to give to our our facility, whether they give back in the programming or help around the building. And then 25 hours they're going to have to give to our community. And that's going to be through projects that they select.
We just had a meeting and we've finalized our Christmas project and we're going to help an organization within the city that helps homeless high school kids. It's kind of a forgotten age within the community. They're going to help their peers out. So you can see up on our board here, we've got a whole bunch of stuff that we lined out and these kids have come to us that they need help in certain subjects. We found tutors for English and math and a whole bunch of tutors that are going to help these kids succeed in the classroom. And that's what this building is going to be very instrumental in providing.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: You gave me the numbers of kids serviced. I can't remember if I mentioned that at the start or not. So run through that again. Give people an idea about the scope of this.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah. In 2024, we had almost 800 or 700, 750 individual kids that came through our program. And so the way that we count those is individual kids and then classes given. So it was just under a thousand classes that those kids attended. So the individual kids can come to multiple classes. So that's how we get that thousand number. We're coming up with ways to track that and that's the way that we've come up with it. Individual kids and then classes given. So just under a thousand classes given to those kids.
And there was about 750 individual kids that came through that program. So it started in 2016. We did a summer and a fall program and we had 88 kids then. So in nine and a half years we have grown exponentially and hoping that with the exposure of this building to continue on that growth path.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: That was my next question. I drive by McDonald Golf Course every day on my way to the university. It's been fun to watch the construction here. How much of just the visibility and the activity of construction, how much has that helped?
[00:11:43] Speaker B: A lot. We have. This is by far and away the busiest location that we have. We have three locations in the city of Wichita, including this one. We are also out at TexConsullover out west and out east. We're at Teradyne. They are very nice and donate that space to us and the city of Wichita. We work very, very well with city of Wichita. They donate the space out there and then we get this lease. We have a hundred year lease and we pay a dollar a year here for this lease. So the city has worked very, very well for us. We have brought all privately raised funds to this area. We have had, like we said earlier, almost a $3 million impact on the community. The building itself is not open to the public. However, the chipping, the putting and the driving range is open to the public when we're not having sessions. And that's. It's the only place on the east side that you can hit off grass for the most part.
So it is a very, very busy driving range and it's. The city of Wichita runs that driving range. They own it and we just helped build it. So it's a pretty big impact to the golf community here in Wichita. So it's been fun to see it grow.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Calvin, do you have a favorite aspect of this building, something that you really think is helpful or important to golfers?
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I think the combination of obviously geeking out and golf a little bit. The, the Foresight track flight tracker kind of having that ability to, to give to the more skilled kids who maybe do want to see how far they can go in golf. Just giving them the, the technology to be able to improve substantially in their game where you know, they can't really get that anywhere else here in Wichita.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Unless you're part of technology. Tell us a little bit more about.
[00:13:40] Speaker C: Yeah, so basically it's just going to kind of track each shot they hit to provide them with, with numbers that they can then look at and, and try to figure out, well, if I do this, am I swing? What am I doing wrong?
What am I doing right? What, where can I improve? It just kind of a more advanced way of, of looking at swing, swing coaching and swing construction. So.
And then also just having heated bays to hit during the winter. You know, I mean it's not every day in the winter you are going to be able to just open that door and hit balls. Sometimes it's still going to be too cold. So to have those doors up and down and then have the heaters in there just to provide a good environment for the kids right in the dead of winter, you know, if it's minus 20 outside, they can still come and work on their game is pretty, pretty unique and pretty awesome. For them.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Just to build on that is. It's a very unique experience for those kids. And first tee, first tee kids. It costs nothing for those kids to use this, this facility.
You're normally looking at a hundred and fifty dollars a month membership or a $50 an hour to use that technology anywhere here in the city. So before our first T kids, it costs them zero to use that. They just book it, they come in, they hit.
And it's just a very unique situation. Again, trying to eliminate those barriers and cost to get these kids that want to use it. And today Calvin doesn't even know. We got our very first national participant selected to go to a tournament. She's been a part of our first tee for three and a half years and she's used all of the stuff in here and started coming to our first tee classes in the summer. And we are very, very excited to have our first national participant selected to go play. And she's going to represent first heat, Greater Wichita very well.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Cory, do you have a favorite part of this building?
[00:15:44] Speaker B: I do, actually. I like a place where these kids, like he said the golf is awesome. But this room that we're sitting in is one of my favorites because the kids, we've used it four or five times already. For the kids, it's an open place where we've had meetings with our junior academy. But also it's really cool for the kids to come up here. We had a kid here yesterday that came up and just needed a quiet place where his brother wouldn't bug him when he could do his homework. So what he did is he did his homework for 45 minutes. He went and hit balls for 45 minutes and came back and finished his homework. And I talked to his dad. His dad was like, that's the most homework I've ever seen him do. So. So with the enticement of being able to hit some balls or chip and putt or do whatever, just steps away is a fantastic place for that. So this study hall room is one of my favorites. And of course, the golf baser. I pinch myself every time I come to work. It's awesome. It's unbelievable what we've been fortunate enough to build.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: We all need a place to get away from our brothers and sisters to do some homework. And I would think there would be a benefit to activity and then study and then, you know, move your body, get, get moving all those kind of things. There would be, you know, people in the college of applied studies that would know more about this kind of motion stuff than I would. But that seemed to be very functional and very helpful.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: A lot of our kids today we're seeing have a hard time staying in one place for more than five minutes. So for him to come in here and use the study hall and hang out for almost two hours, and the majority of that doing his homework was really cool to see. So it's an open place. There's always a background check and safesport trained adult on the premises so the parents can feel safe dropping their child off here. There's, like I say, there's always going to be an adult here just hanging out, not necessarily making sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, but there's. It's going to be a good place and a good, safe spot for these kids to come hang out.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: This would be the natural spot for you to tell us. Yeah, if I'm a parent, how do I get involved? How do I get my child enrolled?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: The easiest way to do that is go to firstteegreaterwichita.org first t greater wichita.org We've got our schedules up there. Our summer schedule is coming up the 2nd of June is when we start that. And you can enroll your child in that. The easiest thing to do. Again, it's low cost to. No cost. If you want to pay the full price, it's about 10 bucks per session, so. Or, excuse me, 10 bucks per lesson. So 80 bucks for the session. But if you go all the way at the end, we have scholarships available, no questions asked. You just click that button and your child can get in there for free. You. We don't need any equipment. We can provide that for them.
Golf clubs, golf balls, golf tees, everything the child would need to get them out on the golf course. All sizes of clubs as well. So from the very short kids to the very, very tall kids, we can make sure that they're equipped with the stuff they need.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: So, Calvin, if you, excuse me, run into a parent says, my child might be interested in golf, but I don't have a background in the sport, why should I do this? What's your pitch to a parent to get their child enrolled in a program like First Tee?
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Yeah, well, as Corey mentioned earlier, the barriers, you know, we just break down the barriers because, yes, if you're not involved in golf or haven't had any access to golf through your life or maybe many generations of your family and it's something brand new to you, it can seem intimidating just because of everything that goes into it. Obviously the cost, the Availability and all the equipment and everything. So I would just encourage them to not think that way and just come in with an open mind and all you got to do is show up and we'll take care of the rest and then, you know, provide kind of talk through what we do and if it's a good fit, then it's a good fit. But I just would encourage people not to look at it as, oh well, you know, know that's an expensive port. There's no ways we can do it. It's just, just come and talk to us and let us know what you need. And we can probably provide it for, for the, for your child because it's going to, you know, like I said, whether the child takes to it and wants to be as good as they can be, or they just enjoy coming and practicing, it's a fun activity. It provides them safe space to do other activities like homework and all of that. Be a part of a team environment or an environment that kids share, the same like minded stuff, you know, and passion for golf and stuff. So yeah, just as Corey mentioned, just check out the website and sign up and just at least give it a try to see what we can offer.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: So Corey, you've talked about the equipment available, how you help people afford this sport. You gave me a tour. Tell us a little bit more about the clubs, the things that are available for students to use.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we have anything that your child would need. We have full sets for the kids that have been to a couple of sessions, a couple of the lessons. If they do show some interest, we can get them a bag and put that together. How the class would normally work, you drop your child off and it's normally an hour, hour and 15 minutes. We have a 10 minute warm up and then the kids that need those clubs, we have those available out there for them to borrow during that session. And then they'll normally go through a driving, chipping and a putting lesson. And all of the games are extremely fun and we try not to make it too tedious or too boring. And then we kind of separate the kids out that really, really want to work hard and challenge those kids. And then the kids that want to have some fun, we make sure that they have fun.
But all the equipment, anything that they need is readily available here. You saw our storage facility. There's hundreds and hundreds of clubs that we can choose for those kids of all sizes. So that is, you know, it's a pretty big barrier for the parents. Oh, I don't want to buy a five Year old or a six year old, a set. Well, we've got that for those kids to test out. They can test it out as long as they want. And if they really get some interest and then grow up, we can get them a newer, taller set. So it's anything that those parents need, we can provide.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: So a youngster can walk in here with no golf background, no golf equipment and you're ready to say let's, let's go. We're here to help.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: We start at 5 years old and we go through high school. We have all ages, all abilities.
The way that the classes work is we now put them in with their peers. So they'll start with 5 and 6 year olds and then they'll move to a 7 year old to 9 year old class and then 10 to 12 and then 13 plus. That's how we will do it. And then we also have just a high school class in the summer. That's one of our most popular classes. So it's taught by City League golf coaches that are in the G wall and it's for eighth graders going into high school, all the way through seniors. So those kids can see the kids that they're going to play against or with or be teammates with in the City League. And they're also going to get exposed to the coaches that are there to help them with the rules in any aspect of not only the City League, but golf as a whole.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Calvin Golf, the sport of golf, what lessons did it teach you that you think are beneficial for other for youngsters to pick up nowadays?
[00:23:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it taught me a lot of it. Teaches many, many life lessons and I'm sure everyone kind of has their own opinion on that. But for me especially patience and perseverance were two big ones. And integrity as well. Obviously there's going to be some things that happen in the game of golf and sometimes you've got to call a harsh penalty on yourself and you make a mistake.
But you got to do that and you've got to learn how to come back from a bad shot to be good at it. You have to. There's no other substitute for putting in the hard work. You have to just work extremely hard and then like I said, have patience. Because there's going to be times where it is way more frustrating than rewarding. You know golf, the highs are high and the lows are low. So you got to have some patience and humility to kind of get through that period.
But I think for a lot of our kids it's just realizing the fun they can have with the game of golf, you know, you don't have to take it seriously. You can have a lot of fun just, just being out there with buddies and, and having a good time, being out in the sunshine and just enjoying, enjoying the outdoors. So yeah, that's kind of what it's, it's taught me. I was probably, I was obviously a lot more serious in the first half of my life just because I wanted to be the best I could be. And now this latter half in my life, it's been a little more fun because I don't have that pressure of trying to be that good. So there's a lot of different avenues you can take. You just need to have an open mind and decide what you want to get out of the game.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: The truth is in the dirt. Is that the well known Greer Jones phrase for describing the need for hard work? Yep, I'm sure you both heard that many times. Yes, definitely, definitely. Corey, how about you? How did your association with, with golf shape your life?
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Like I say, I was really lucky. I grew up at Crestview Country Club. I didn't actually pick a golf club up Till I was 11, so I played baseball. I just got tired of waiting on the rest of the team to show up for practice and wandered out to the golf course and borrowed some clubs and that was it. And like he was saying, it teaches a lot of things. But most importantly to me, I think you can play golf your entire life.
It's a lifelong sport. No matter how old you are, you can still play. So it's fantastic to get back out there and it's been fun to see pass that knowledge and information on to these kids here at the first tee that have never would have never had an opportunity to play.
Have them experience the exact same things that I got to experience. And the game of golf allowed me to travel and go to college. And I don't know if I would have gone to college if it wasn't for golf. So that definitely is one of the things that definitely helped. So it's been cool.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: So what have you learned about. Okay, you get a youngster unfamiliar with golf, what really clicks with them, what sparks an interest in this, in this sport is anything. Is there a common thread that jumps to mind?
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Well, the thing that we like to do here at the first tee is we like to let those kids just explore.
I think there's, you know, some 10 or 11 year old kids where their dad actually makes them play or go take lessons and then there's adult telling them this is how you do it. This is how you have to do it. This is how you have to do it. When the first kid, when the first time they get on a golf course, we let them just kind of feel the way out and what's natural to them. And then as they progress session to session to session or year after year, we instill those. Those. This is this, you know, why don't you try this grip or why don't you try this shot? You know, and then we found that that has been very beneficial to the kids not having another adult tell them this is how you have to do it. Letting them kind of figure out their own way. We kind of.
We let them do instead of telling. So that's been very successful for us. And we have a really high retention rate with those kids that, oh, golf. That wasn't how golf used to be, or this is how junior golf wasn't. This is fun. I want to go back and, you know, by the end of a couple sessions, they know our nine core values, which honesty, integrity and sportsmanship and those. Those type of words. And they know how to swing a golf club.
[00:28:16] Speaker C: Yeah. To add on that, I think, you know, we, like I mentioned earlier, we just.
Not here. We're not going to sit here and tell you that our goal is to make you the best golfer you can possibly be. Because some kids, that's not going to be their goal. So just getting them exposed to the game of golf and they can have fun with it the way they want to and still learn a lot of the values that come with the game. There's a lot of structure around the programming that Corey has created, so they learn a lot just from that versus how I should hit a pitching wedge or how I should make this chip or anything like that. And then also to kind of jump on the building aspect again.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: It's.
[00:28:55] Speaker C: It's just.
Well, for example, that the first T academy in the pilot program there was. Corey led it, obviously leading it and let us know as a board, kind of all the successful stories that came out of the initial conversations and everything. And maybe one of those kids, maybe all of those kids are not going to go pro or play in college, but we are going to impact them in a. In a far greater way as well. Just having them prepared for college, providing them help with other things, a means to. To maybe get away if they're struggling with some things in their life, and then just giving them a chance where they can be open about things and voice their feelings, and we will be there to help them in any way we can, not just how to grip a golf club or how to do that. So I think that's one of the biggest impacts for the first year program is just kind of that other stuff we provide outside of just learning the game of golf. Golf is just the medium to help us bring us the kids together and help them with all aspects of life.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: So you both played golf at Wichita State for Greer Jones. He was Wichita guy, played at Oklahoma State, great player there, played on the PGA Tour, coached the Shockers from 95 to 2019 and had tremendous success there. So this seems like the kind of project he would love. And then I think of other, you know, kind of Wichita golf big names, Texas Consolver you mentioned Johnny Stephens is this project very much in the spirit of those kind of people. The Gulf, I don't know if you call them pioneers or not, but people who just really love the game in this city.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think anytime you can get a golf club or a kid on a golf course hitting golf balls that wouldn't normally have the opportunity to do so, that's a fantastic thing and that's our goal here. I believe that those golf pioneers, as you said, Tex Consolivor was a real big junior golf advocate.
And you know, Johnny and Greer were fantastic players as well. And so I'm sure that the more golfers that they see out there on the course, the better. And I believe that's what we're doing.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Greer told me stories about playing for money here at McDonald Golf Course as a youngster. So I think he probably appreciates that. It makes sense that it's at this.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: Golf course we used to where the current driving range is. Now, prior to the range being built at Braeburn is where we practiced. Every once in a while we used to have to come out here and hit and shag golf balls. And Greer said he used to do that when he was 10, 11 years old. So we heard plenty of stories of that. And it's, you know, my life has kind of come full circle here now. That's, you know, where he used to practice. 247 is where I work. So it's been really cool to, to be a part of that history.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Okay, I warned you I was going to ask a question about your favorite Greer Jones story or lesson from Greer Calvin. I'll let you start. When you bump into somebody and they say, oh, you played for Grier Jones, you must have some tales to tell. What do you talk about?
[00:32:12] Speaker C: Okay, so my Greer Dearns story is well, there's a lot, but it happened right here on just the third hole adjacent here to campus at McDonald Golf Golf Course and we're qualifying and I pulled my T shirt into the trees on the left and went in there to find it, found it, got ready, hit the ball, hit the boar and then felt a sting on my left shoulder and reached in my shirt and pulled out a wise sport be. I can't remember, but obviously started hurting pretty bad and made my way out in the fairway where Grio was sitting and, you know, went up to him and said, geez, coach, I just got stung by a bee or wasp or something. And he just looks at me and says, well, Kelvin, there's no bees in the fairway. So just kind of shows you, you know, his mentality. No sympathy. And which rightly so, I shouldn't have been in the trees in the first place. But he was all business when it came to that. And that's just a classic Greer Jones.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Story that sounds like that would make a good. A good T shirt, a good fundraising T shirt. There are no bees on the fairway.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we had. I was lucky enough or unlucky enough to kind of break him in his very first year was my sophomore year. I had Al Littleton as my coach as a freshman. But I knew Greer was coming, so that was the reason that I ended up ultimately deciding on going to WSU back then when he was. We were just starting to rebuild the program. We didn't fly everywhere as what the guys fly everywhere now.
So being six, seven, eight hours in a van with Greer was both amazing and unbelievable.
There was times where we would be in the six passenger van and he would be. I just vaguely remember driving to a tournament. I don't even remember where the tournament was, but he wouldn't let anybody listen to the radio because the Braves were on. He was a big Braves fan and he was up there. It was like listening to the Braves. I think they were playing the Marlins in 97 or 98 to go to the World Series and it didn't work out so well for the Braves. So he was just up there cussing and every word that I probably hadn't ever heard before was coming out of his mouth about how Greg Maddox couldn't pitch that night and so. And so couldn't do something. But, you know, it was just interesting just hearing him, you know those stories. That's exactly how he was. And he was a creature of habit. There was only a couple places he would eat and Outback steakhouse was one of them. And I don't think I've been to an Outback Steakhouse since college because that's all we ate.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: Outback. And Subway.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: And Subway, yeah. So, I mean, I wouldn't have changed going to Wichita State. I was so lucky to be in his presence as, you know, just kind of a mentor and a golf coach. And it was, it was a fantastic time learning. And it's interesting to see how when he started having grandkids, how soft he's gotten and, and how easy those last couple teams that he had had it. But it's funny, I mean, he's still the same. It's, it's, it's, it's great.
[00:35:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I got, I got one quick one as well.
Just to his character or just, you know, all business, you go and give your, your best and that's all that matters kind of mentality.
We're in San Antonio and we played a practice round at a course.
It wasn't the course we were playing, but we needed a place to play. So we went to a course called the Quarry there and got back to the parking lot and the van was gone. Someone stole it. So everything gone. And I'm thinking, well, literally all of our stuff is gone. This is it. I mean, we're going back home and, you know, this is crisis. And we organized other transportation, taxis and whatnot. And that night he takes us to, to the Dick's Sporting Goods to go buy some clothes because we teeing it up the next day and just make sure that, you know, no excuses, you guys are still out here. We're going to play this tournament and we're going to give it our best shot.
Despite that happening, we still played the tournament. But a lot of good stories with Greer and good times. I'm glad I got to experience what it was like to play for Greer.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: People always remember the off the course, off the court, you know, travel in a van, those kind of stories. So we've talked about that. What made him such a good golf coach? What did he, you know, how did he teach the game?
[00:37:00] Speaker B: He knew every aspect of every shot, whether it was a drive, whether it was an iron shot, a wedge shot.
He basically taught me how to hit out of a bunker.
Kind of along the lines of what he said. He said, well, don't hit in them first, but if you do hit in them, here's what, what you do. He was. There was nobody better that I have ever seen have the ability to get it up and down out of the bunker. He, he would tell you how he did it. He didn't have a 1 swing that he taught all of his students. He would kind of let you have your own swing or your own putting style, but he would make some suggestions on how you can get better. And he would really, really, really make you practice. He instilled a lot of work hard.
He always would tell us that don't expect to play well. If you didn't put the work in, you can't complain. And you know, we'd get done with the tournament. Well, you didn't work on your putting that. How many hours did you put in at putting? You didn't putt great. Well, here's why. And he was real. Like he said, no sympathy for everything. And I like that he told it how it was.
[00:38:23] Speaker C: He pushed his teams to just work harder. You know, with the ncaa, you only allowed allotted amount of time to be out there and practice. And at least when I was on the team, the guys always worked hours before that and after that. So he really pushed push the guys to reframe their thinking and working literally as hard as they possibly could.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: Corey Nova Scone and Calvin Pearson. They are part of the first tee. Greater Wichita. We're here taking a look around the Steve Hatchett Learning Center. Corey and Calvin, thank you very much for your time.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:39:00] Speaker C: I do have one. Can I just say one more thing? You bet. Okay, so I just want to say, you know, to whoever's listening, thanks to the donors and everything, Wichita is surprisingly a really solid golf community. And we couldn't have done this without our donors and all who had contributed to make this a possibility. Because as Corey alluded to earlier in the podcast, we are making a difference. There's a lot of good things happening. A lot of kids are being touched through the game of golf and through being able to provide them homework, tutoring, all of that other life skill stuff. So without our donors, we wouldn't have this. So it's just. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Excellent. Thank you.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: Hi, this is Rick Niema, president of Wichita State University. Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Witchita State University. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] it's over.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: It is over. Ladies and gentlemen, say it slowly and savor it. Wichita State is going to the Final Four for the first time in 48 years. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
[00:40:58] Speaker B: What a scene, folks. The Shocker fans are just going crazy in the stands.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Just maybe the greatest win in the history of Wichita State basketball.
