Freshman Jonathan Randolph takes a swing during the two-team conference against Covenant on Saturday/Triangle photo by Lana Douglas.

by Lana Douglas
Photo Editor

It seems to be the year for new sports at Bryan. In addition to softball and cheerleading, Bryan now has a golf team.

The sports program has added both men’s and women’s golf teams to Bryan campus. Already the teams include 12 men and six women, with more recruits on the way for the spring season.

“We were looking to expand our school’s sports program, and I think one of the things that we had to include was more women’s sports,” said Head Golf Coach Peter Bollant.

Freshman Alicen Wendall originally planned on playing soccer in college, but when she heard about Bryan’s new golf program and scholarship her plans changed.

“I think that there’s plenty of options [at Bryan],” said Wendall. “A lot of the colleges I visited didn’t even have golf.”

Golf is different from every other sport, according to Bollant. It doesn’t require the stamina and the same level of physical fitness as other sports. Golf is all about concentration and playing for the whole match, not just one hole.

Right now, the golf team does not have a place to practice on campus. Instead, they drive about 30 minutes to different golf courses in the area to practice several times a week.

“It’s a problem not having facilities on campus, but we are only in the first year of the program and we are patient,” said Bollant.

“If it was right here on campus I feel like it would be easier,” said Wendall. “It’s a little hard to drive and then want to practice.”

Even though the golf team has to travel to practice, soon they will have three new golf holes by the water tower on campus, and Fort Bluff Sports Camp on Dayton Mountain has donated a synthetic putting green. The synthetic green at Fort Bluff should be up sometime this week and the holes by the water tower will be ready to use as soon as the grass grows in.

The golf teams have already started playing in conferences, even though their main season is in the spring. The men’s team just competed in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament in Elizabethton, Tenn. and the women’s team will be competing in the AAC Fall Conference Tournament in Marietta, Ga., on Sunday.

Bollant feels both teams can be “decently competitive” this season in spite of being a first-year program.

“I think that we can do reasonable,” said Bollant. “But I think within a couple years, we can be big-time competitors within our conference.”

For more information on the golf teams visit www.bryanlions.com

Bryan College has hired Peter Bollant as the part-time head coach for the men’s and women’s golf team.

“I am extremely excited about coming to Bryan to help develop men’s and women’s golf teams,” said Bollant.

Bollant comes to Bryan from the Davao City, Philippines, where he was a missionary. Along with playing golf in high school and college, Bollant worked as a golf instructor in Minnesota and the Philippines. The Bollant family has just recently moved to Dayton, where Bollant will begin his recruiting process.

Because golf is a new sport introduced to Bryan, Bollant will be taking the next year to recruit players for the team.

Along with talking to some possible assistant coaches, Bollant will be going around to local high schools, tournaments and conversing with coaches to see what kind of prospects available.

According the Bollant, the main thing will be to establish practice facilities and look at budget for the team.

“At this point we are in the recruiting stage. Our main goal is to recruit enough players to fill women’s and men’s teams,” said Bollant.

As of right now, the team does not have any official recruits, but by the spring, Bollant is hoping for about 15 recruits.

Bollant believes that because of Bryan’s great educational system and strong faith, it will give an advantage in the recruiting.

“Bryan still has a strong Christian worldview program that under girds all of our education,” said Bollant. “This is a huge advantage to us in recruiting.”

In an attempt to continue to reach the goal of obtaining 1200 students, Bryan College has included two new sports in addition to other changes currently under way at the college. A men’s and women’s golf team has been added, as well as a women’s slow pitch softball team.

The teams, who will participate in their first season during the 2010-2011 school year, will be officially launched with obtaining a coach to that will scout potential talent and students during the 2009-2010 school years.

“We’re real excited about the both the sports, especially women’s softball. It will be a great addition to our sport’s program. We’re the only school in the conference that does not offer women’s softball,” said Athletic Director Sandy Zensen.

Women’s softball has become a very popular sport in southern states. Bryan College, which offered softball in the mid 1980′s, was afraid of losing potential students due to a lack of a softball program.

“Both of these programs provide us an opportunity to grow as an institution, and that is part of the rational for bringing those sports on board. We’re looking at adding 20-25 athletes for softball, and 10-12 athletes for the golf team,” said Dr. Zensen.

Both sports will use facilities that the Dayton community can offer. The city of Dayton offers both a country club that will host the golf teams, and the softball facilities offered by the community will accommodate the softball team. Future plans may include Bryan’s own softball complex, but no definite plans have been made. The first priority is creating a successful softball team.

“Next month I will formal announcement to the NIAI and to the National Christian College Athletic Association indicating that we are looking for coaches in both of these sports,” said Zensen.

Concern has been raised that these sports might have the potential to take scholarship money available to the student body to entice future athletes to attend Bryan College. However, the scholarship money will be found from the sports department, and will not be taken from the student body.

The student body still has had mixed emotions concerning the two new sports.

“We have so much that still needs to be finished around the campus. We have a nice sport trainer building and program but can it really actively handle ten different sports with only three trainers? I guess I have mixed emotions,” said junior Taylor Gentry.