The calendar turning over to September means that the NCC Men’s Golf season is in the swing of things. The Cardinals’ first action of the season was on Tuesday at the Aurora University Double Gun Classic. They placed 13th as a team, with Brendan Joy being the top Cardinal.
The Cardinals lost three seniors from last year’s squad in Victor Coll Sijercic, Vail Cordell, and Sergio Ronchel Salas. Seijercic’s production will be hard to replace, as he averaged 74.5 strokes per match across 12 rounds last season.
New leadership for the Cardinals this season
After one season as the coach for both the men’s and women’s teams, Frankie Ivelia passed the baton on to another NCC alum, Alyssa Guss. Ivelia stays on as head coach of the women’s program. Guss is viewed as “the most decorated student-athlete in the history of the North Central women’s program,” as she is a member of the North Central College Athletics Hall of Fame. Guss brings “nearly a decade” of Division I coaching experience to NCC. She’ll look to bring some new energy to a program that had its share of ups and downs last season.
Newcomers galore
While the team lost three seniors from last season, they have picked up five freshmen for 2022-2023. Grayson Hill, Cooper Irvin, Matthew Jachim, Joy and Nicholas Zaimins will all be donning the Cardinal red and black for the first time this fall in hopes of making an immediate impact. When asked about the comparison of high school and college golf, Jachim noted the personal accountability that lies on the student-athletes,
“It is more of your responsibility to get to practice; make sure you get your drills in and figure out what you need to do with your game,” Jachim said. “The practices really seem to be more focused on certain aspects of your game for certain days. I feel like I have already seen improvement and growth of confidence in my game.”
Along with the difference in competition level and preparation, joining a bigger team in terms of roster size is an adjustment for the freshmen. When it came to joining the program at NCC, Zaimins was a fan of how the program looked at more than just his golf game in the recruitment process.
“NCC really stood out to me as an organized, competent golf program. I really liked the coach’s vision and what she valued in players. I was recruited more so as to who I am as a person and student. Not just who I am as a golfer, so I felt appreciated by the program,” Zaimins said.
Turning it up a notch
The Cardinals have been hard at work through practice and their qualifying rounds. These rounds are good for getting the squad off and running to start the fall season. They also give Guss’s staff an idea as to what they have amongst their group. Junior Braden Estes described how cutthroat the rounds have truly been so far.
“Our first couple qualifying rounds are the most competitive I’ve seen in my three years here at NCC,” said Estes. “We have great depth and more than ten guys that can legitimately shoot in the 70s on a regular basis. That really gets me motivated to better myself this season.”
On top of this, Estes noted many returners don’t want anyone to be content with where they stand.
“A few of us talked over the summer, and our goal for this fall is to have no one comfortable in their spot. Our travel roster should never be content with their position. We want our 6th through 18th spots to be constantly charging to make the top five,” Estes said.
New year, new hope
The team’s goal for this season is fairly simple; win the conference championship. The men’s program has only won two team championships since joining the CCIW. One thing that has been a constant for NCC men’s golf is what they bring to the classroom. There have been 36 Academic All-CCIW recipients in the program over the last 13 seasons. Only time will tell for this group. However, by the looks of it so far, there might be something brewing for the men’s golf program.
The Cardinals’ next competition will be at the Carthage College Fall Invitational this Friday.
