Golf: Sliman off to great start

Dan McDonald • dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com • November 5, 2008

Despite a change in the coaching chair, UL’s golf team didn’t miss a beat during the just-completed fall season. Of course, not too many were surprised by that.

When Bob Bass retired after nearly two decades of leading the program, it wasn’t much of a stretch for the athletic department to bring Theo Sliman back into the family. And in his first tournament as coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns, all the UL team did was win both a team and individual tile at North Texas’ Mean Green Invitational.

Then, in last week’s fall-ending Roadrunner Intercollegiate in Kerrville, Texas, the Cajuns staged a big final day rally to finish second overall, and senior Devin Carrey followed up his season-opening win at UNT with a second-place finish in the finale.

"To start off like that, and then to end the season like we did, it was just a good, solid fall," said Sliman, the former Cajun all-conference pick and captain who took over last summer. "With anything new there’s a learning curve and you have to get acclimated to it. I’m comfortable as the coach, but just like the players need to learn all the time, if a coach stops learning he needs to move on."

Sliman’s not going anywhere soon. His team has quality senior leadership at the top in Carrey and Dustin Petit – a top-seven finisher in both the first and last fall tournaments – and a solid set of younger players that includes two highly-regarded freshmen in Andrew Noto and Philipp Fendt.

Carrey averaged a solid 73.0 in UL’s five fall tournaments with three top ten finishes and four sub-par rounds, while Petit averaged 74.9.

"It’s not a coincidence that our best two tournaments, you saw that tandem, those two seniors, having strong tournaments," Sliman said. "Devin has stepped up as a quiet leader. I’m so proud of what he’s done on and off the course in taking on the role of captain and leader. He’s helped me a bunch as a new coach."

Noto was one of the state’s top prep players at Hahnville last year and averaged 73.9 in nine fall rounds, including a top-10 finish in the Mean Green. Fendt, a product of Austria, had more than his share of low rounds despite a 76.2 average and needs only to find consistency.

"Those guys are going to get better and better as experience comes," Sliman said. "It was an overwhelming semester for Philipp just being in the states, but those guys have a lot of maturity for freshmen."

The Cajuns are the defending Sun Belt Conference champions, having won last year’s title as a sendoff for Bass. UL established itself as a back-to-back threat with a 13-3 record against Sun Belt teams in the fall season, but Sliman said that repeating won’t be easy once the spring season begins Feb. 9-10 at the Mardi Gras Invitational at the TPC Louisiana course in New Orleans.

"We’ve got a very competitive conference," he said. "I think we’re among the competitors, but we’re going to just take it one tournament at a time and not get ahead of ourselves. We plan to compete for the title, but we’re going to have to beat some good schools to do that.

"If we play the way we should play, the results take care of themselves. It’s more the process than the results."