Sept. 3, 2009

Contact: Martin Rickman

Cleveland State head golf coach Steve Weir can easily remember all of the details of the Horizon League Championship he won as a player at Cleveland State. Maybe that's because it was just three years ago.

Weir, who earned first team All-Horizon honors in his senior season, is in his third season at the helm, and has certainly not had a difficult time adjusting to the transition from player to coach. He joined the coaching staff as an assistant in 2006 after finishing his degree, and was named head coach the following year.

"I had a sense of pride from playing here and winning a championship," Weir said. "It started a tradition of winning, so I saw what it took as a player and carried it over as a coach. The one year I was an assistant, I saw the difference that it took from the year that I played to the year that I was a head coach."

Weir's coaching mentality started when he was a player. After playing at both Kent State and Baldwin-Wallace, he entered Cleveland State as a senior in the fall of 2005. He was two years older than everyone else and lived off campus, so even though he was still close to the team, that perspective allowed him to be more of a teacher on the golf course.

And the fact that he graduated in 2006 may give him an advantage that supersedes a longer tenure as a head coach. He can relate to the players and give them pointers to help them in not only their golfing career, but in the student part of the student-athlete.

"I was in their shoes three years ago trying to balance school, golf, wanting to play well, wanting to win a championship," Weir said. "I know where they're coming from. I know how hard it is to try and get homework done and get to the course. I know how hard the travel schedule is. I help them try to find that balance and keep them fresh."

That freshness has translated to major success on the course. The men's team has won back-to-back Horizon League Championships, due to the strength of players like 2009 graduate Jake Scott, who was named to three All-Horizon League first teams.

With Scott gone, the Vikings will look to players like Kyle Cobb, Kent Monas and Pattie Elber to pick up the slack. That is an entirely reachable goal; Elber has played in 103 rounds in his career, Monas was the No. 2 player on the team the last two years and Cobb has come back strong from an ankle injury last spring.

On the women's side, a program-best second place Horizon League finish has the team craving more. Senior Katie Broere became just the second Viking to earn all-league first team honors in Cleveland State history and is returning from a season in which she was named to the Horizon League All-Tournament team.

And for the two teams to be able to hoist a championship in the same season, it is going to take an equal balance of mental toughness and responsibility.

"I try to get the guys to stay as positive as they can on the golf course," Weir said. "When we work in practice, we're working on swing mechanics but we do more on the mental side of the game. We need to focus on everything that goes into a round of golf: where to hit it on a golf course and be able to separate our emotions, never get too high and never get too low.

"Overall, it's their team. Nothing we do as a coaching staff is solely us, so we get their input as much as we can. As coaches we make the final decision, but they are out there playing the rounds, so we want them to get a sense of ownership of the team."

The youngest coach among Cleveland State's 17 varsity sports, Weir has already had achievements that some coaches never reach in their careers, but he is not content to stop there. At just 27, there is no telling just how far he, and the Cleveland State Vikings, can go.