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Covich Taking Season’s End In Stride As He Waits For Things To Return To Normal
March 24, 2020 03:06 PM | Golf
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With everyone now social distancing to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, West Virginia University golf coach Sean Covich has taken on the role of physical education teacher for his young son, Keenan.
Once his wife, Kate, handles the much tougher subjects in the morning, dad and son can have a little father-son time down in the basement or out in the backyard away from everyone else afterward.
"We will be running around the house here in a little bit," Covich said.
That's our reality right now.
We've seen the pictures on social media of WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey in the basement hitting slap shots to his goaltender son, Wammer, or football assistant coach Jordan Lesley playing Hungry Hungry Hippos on his daughter's bed.
It's a necessary time to step back, reflect and keep away from others to avoid spreading this highly contagious virus. That's just the smart, socially responsible thing to do right now.
"It's really been just focusing on family, and then trying to stay in touch with our guys as much as I can," Covich said.
Two weeks ago, Covich was actually looking forward to getting into a van and spending eight hours with his guys driving down to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to get in some important practice rounds before they competed at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate in Columbia, South Carolina.
It was going to be an opportunity to take advantage of some great weather to get into peak form just ahead of the looming championship events in late April and May.
Covich was sitting in his office on a Thursday morning catching up on some paperwork while assistant coach Clay Bounds had the guys over at The Pines Country Club taking advantage of some unseasonably warm weather when he got a call from golf administrator Steve Uryasz, who also oversees men's basketball.
Uryasz was in Kansas City for the Big 12 Championships dealing with the rapidly deteriorating situation there when he found a spare moment to check up on Covich.
He wanted to know what the team's travel plans were for their spring break trip.
"We had a really big trip lined up," Covich said. "We were going to leave Friday, March 13, right after classes got out, and head to Pinehurst for 2 ½ days," he said. "Then we were going to head down to Hilton Head and practice every day and kind of use it as a training camp leading into the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate.
"When we woke up on Thursday, that's what we thought we were going to do," he said. "The guys were out at The Pines practicing and I was in the office trying to keep an eye on things with Steve keeping me up to date. I knew something was up when he kept asking me about my trip, when we were leaving and then telling me to hold tight."
In the meantime, Covich's players were beginning to get wind of things on the golf course, and they soon started sending him text messages as well.
"I didn't want to keep updating them with everything I was hearing because it was changing by the minute, so I told them, 'Look guys, just go out and practice and, if things change, I will let you know," he said.
So the players teed off, excited about their spring break trip to Pinehurst and then competing the following weekend at a pretty strong tournament being hosted by South Carolina. However, by the time they walked 18 holes and returned to the clubhouse their seasons – and in the case of seniors Philipp Matlari and Etienne Papineau – their college careers – were done.
The news Covich received over the next four hours kept getting worse – from the spring break trip getting canceled to the Big 12 Championship getting canceled to the NCAA deciding to cancel its spring sports championships.
"It all happened within a matter of hours," he said.
Covich, brought in five years ago to revive West Virginia University golf, is used to these sort of disappointments, and he takes this latest one in stride.
"In the big picture, if they need to cancel the season or whatever to keep everybody safer and healthy, I'm 100 percent for it," he said. "We just need to do what we need to do to stay safe and then, eventually, we can get back to golf at some point."
Years from now, when Covich will have more time like does right now to reflect, he's going to wonder what the 2020 campaign could have done for his emerging WVU golf program.
He readily admits this was his best team, one built from the ground up four years ago. The Mountaineers were coming off their first NCAA regional appearance since 1947, which came two years after the conclusion of World War II, and they briefly cracked the Golf Week Top 25 last fall.
Matlari was playing the best golf of his life, as was junior Logan Perkins, who carded a school-record 62 at the Florida Gator Invitational in mid-February. Papineau was playing well and so were juniors Mark Goetz and Matthew Sharpstene, and sophomore Kurtis Grant.
Last fall, the Mountaineers defeated TCU and Iowa State in match play and tied Oklahoma State 3-3, which is astonishing when you consider how far West Virginia has come in such a short period of time.
Golf teams in this part of the country usually need some time to peak during the spring season because the weather can be so challenging.
And even that was going West Virginia's way with the mild winter Morgantown was experiencing!
When Covich pried Bounds away from Rice to become his assistant coach, he was straight with him about the weather challenges in Morgantown in January and February.
"I told him 'you don't know what you can get up here in January and February,'" he recalled. "It could snow every day and be zero degrees and he was like, 'Hey, it hasn't been that bad.' I'm like, 'I know, I've been up here five winters in this was by far our mildest winter.' We felt like we were playing with some house money because we were able to get outside a few times each week."
That's why Covich was so eager to get to Pinehurst to get his guys a full week of golf. He felt a solid week of play there was going to put his team in great shape for the remainder of the season, which most assuredly would have included a return trip to NCAA regionals.
"We were really looking forward to the last stretch of golf for March, April and May, hopefully making it to nationals, because all of the guys were showing signs of playing well and the weather was getting warmer," he said.
The Mountaineers just missed reaching nationals by two strokes last spring and "two strokes better" was the team's motto this season.
But then just like that, in a snap of a finger, it was over. Covich didn't even get a chance to see all of his guys before they left campus to return to their homes. In the case of his seniors, Matlari and Papineau, that meant leaving the United States.
Matlari lives in Germany and Papineau resides in Quebec.
Whether or not they are granted another year of college eligibility could be a moot point anyway, according to Covich.
"We don't know what's going to shake out with the NCAA," he said. "These guys have already started to make life plans. They are going to graduate and then they have to determine if they are going to play professionally or get a job.
"You can't just say, 'Oh, they'll come back," he added. "Where are they going to live? A lot of things have to play out, but believe me, I want those guys to come back."
In the big picture, there are issues far more important than that right now.
"These are all first-world problems," Covich reiterated. "I know how lucky I am to be coaching golf for a living and being around these great young guys who are great students and great athletes. We had a really good team this year, and it was just fun being around them. That's the part that hurts the most. We've been able to build this culture the way we want it, and it's been fun traveling with these guys and watching them compete."
More than anything, Covich said not seeing his players compete in championship events is the most difficult aspect to the cancellation of the season.
"I don't care what sport you coach, your favorite thing is watching your guys compete," he admitted. "That's why you do everything to get to that moment when they are competing and they have to dig down deep and fight. That's just so much fun to see them do that."
Now, we've got to dig down deep as a country and do what the medical professionals and leaders are instructing us to do.
Everyone needs to do his or her part by avoiding large crowds and distancing themselves from others until the country has a better handle on the dangerous virus.
That's what Sean Covich is doing. That's what Neal Brown is doing. That's what Bob Huggins is doing. That's what Nikki Izzo-Brown is doing and so are the rest of the coaches and staff.
If everyone does their part, we will reach the end of this much sooner.
"Hopefully, at some point this summer, things will once again resemble some sort of normalcy," Covich said. "That's what everybody wants. Whenever that does happen we're going to have a new team. Hopefully, we're going to have three freshmen show up in August and, hopefully, we're going to be able to start practicing and competing again."
In the meantime, Covich is going to try and be the best physical education teacher in the neighborhood for his son, Keenan.
That's his No. 1 focus.
Once his wife, Kate, handles the much tougher subjects in the morning, dad and son can have a little father-son time down in the basement or out in the backyard away from everyone else afterward.
"We will be running around the house here in a little bit," Covich said.
That's our reality right now.
We've seen the pictures on social media of WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey in the basement hitting slap shots to his goaltender son, Wammer, or football assistant coach Jordan Lesley playing Hungry Hungry Hippos on his daughter's bed.
It's a necessary time to step back, reflect and keep away from others to avoid spreading this highly contagious virus. That's just the smart, socially responsible thing to do right now.
"It's really been just focusing on family, and then trying to stay in touch with our guys as much as I can," Covich said.
Two weeks ago, Covich was actually looking forward to getting into a van and spending eight hours with his guys driving down to Pinehurst, North Carolina, to get in some important practice rounds before they competed at the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate in Columbia, South Carolina.
It was going to be an opportunity to take advantage of some great weather to get into peak form just ahead of the looming championship events in late April and May.
Covich was sitting in his office on a Thursday morning catching up on some paperwork while assistant coach Clay Bounds had the guys over at The Pines Country Club taking advantage of some unseasonably warm weather when he got a call from golf administrator Steve Uryasz, who also oversees men's basketball.
Uryasz was in Kansas City for the Big 12 Championships dealing with the rapidly deteriorating situation there when he found a spare moment to check up on Covich.
He wanted to know what the team's travel plans were for their spring break trip.
"We had a really big trip lined up," Covich said. "We were going to leave Friday, March 13, right after classes got out, and head to Pinehurst for 2 ½ days," he said. "Then we were going to head down to Hilton Head and practice every day and kind of use it as a training camp leading into the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate.
"When we woke up on Thursday, that's what we thought we were going to do," he said. "The guys were out at The Pines practicing and I was in the office trying to keep an eye on things with Steve keeping me up to date. I knew something was up when he kept asking me about my trip, when we were leaving and then telling me to hold tight."
In the meantime, Covich's players were beginning to get wind of things on the golf course, and they soon started sending him text messages as well.
"I didn't want to keep updating them with everything I was hearing because it was changing by the minute, so I told them, 'Look guys, just go out and practice and, if things change, I will let you know," he said.
So the players teed off, excited about their spring break trip to Pinehurst and then competing the following weekend at a pretty strong tournament being hosted by South Carolina. However, by the time they walked 18 holes and returned to the clubhouse their seasons – and in the case of seniors Philipp Matlari and Etienne Papineau – their college careers – were done.
The news Covich received over the next four hours kept getting worse – from the spring break trip getting canceled to the Big 12 Championship getting canceled to the NCAA deciding to cancel its spring sports championships.
"It all happened within a matter of hours," he said.
Covich, brought in five years ago to revive West Virginia University golf, is used to these sort of disappointments, and he takes this latest one in stride.
"In the big picture, if they need to cancel the season or whatever to keep everybody safer and healthy, I'm 100 percent for it," he said. "We just need to do what we need to do to stay safe and then, eventually, we can get back to golf at some point."
Years from now, when Covich will have more time like does right now to reflect, he's going to wonder what the 2020 campaign could have done for his emerging WVU golf program.
He readily admits this was his best team, one built from the ground up four years ago. The Mountaineers were coming off their first NCAA regional appearance since 1947, which came two years after the conclusion of World War II, and they briefly cracked the Golf Week Top 25 last fall.
Matlari was playing the best golf of his life, as was junior Logan Perkins, who carded a school-record 62 at the Florida Gator Invitational in mid-February. Papineau was playing well and so were juniors Mark Goetz and Matthew Sharpstene, and sophomore Kurtis Grant.
Last fall, the Mountaineers defeated TCU and Iowa State in match play and tied Oklahoma State 3-3, which is astonishing when you consider how far West Virginia has come in such a short period of time.
Golf teams in this part of the country usually need some time to peak during the spring season because the weather can be so challenging.
And even that was going West Virginia's way with the mild winter Morgantown was experiencing!
When Covich pried Bounds away from Rice to become his assistant coach, he was straight with him about the weather challenges in Morgantown in January and February.
"I told him 'you don't know what you can get up here in January and February,'" he recalled. "It could snow every day and be zero degrees and he was like, 'Hey, it hasn't been that bad.' I'm like, 'I know, I've been up here five winters in this was by far our mildest winter.' We felt like we were playing with some house money because we were able to get outside a few times each week."
That's why Covich was so eager to get to Pinehurst to get his guys a full week of golf. He felt a solid week of play there was going to put his team in great shape for the remainder of the season, which most assuredly would have included a return trip to NCAA regionals.
"We were really looking forward to the last stretch of golf for March, April and May, hopefully making it to nationals, because all of the guys were showing signs of playing well and the weather was getting warmer," he said.
The Mountaineers just missed reaching nationals by two strokes last spring and "two strokes better" was the team's motto this season.
But then just like that, in a snap of a finger, it was over. Covich didn't even get a chance to see all of his guys before they left campus to return to their homes. In the case of his seniors, Matlari and Papineau, that meant leaving the United States.
Matlari lives in Germany and Papineau resides in Quebec.
Whether or not they are granted another year of college eligibility could be a moot point anyway, according to Covich.
"We don't know what's going to shake out with the NCAA," he said. "These guys have already started to make life plans. They are going to graduate and then they have to determine if they are going to play professionally or get a job.
"You can't just say, 'Oh, they'll come back," he added. "Where are they going to live? A lot of things have to play out, but believe me, I want those guys to come back."
In the big picture, there are issues far more important than that right now.
"These are all first-world problems," Covich reiterated. "I know how lucky I am to be coaching golf for a living and being around these great young guys who are great students and great athletes. We had a really good team this year, and it was just fun being around them. That's the part that hurts the most. We've been able to build this culture the way we want it, and it's been fun traveling with these guys and watching them compete."
More than anything, Covich said not seeing his players compete in championship events is the most difficult aspect to the cancellation of the season.
"I don't care what sport you coach, your favorite thing is watching your guys compete," he admitted. "That's why you do everything to get to that moment when they are competing and they have to dig down deep and fight. That's just so much fun to see them do that."
Now, we've got to dig down deep as a country and do what the medical professionals and leaders are instructing us to do.
Everyone needs to do his or her part by avoiding large crowds and distancing themselves from others until the country has a better handle on the dangerous virus.
That's what Sean Covich is doing. That's what Neal Brown is doing. That's what Bob Huggins is doing. That's what Nikki Izzo-Brown is doing and so are the rest of the coaches and staff.
If everyone does their part, we will reach the end of this much sooner.
"Hopefully, at some point this summer, things will once again resemble some sort of normalcy," Covich said. "That's what everybody wants. Whenever that does happen we're going to have a new team. Hopefully, we're going to have three freshmen show up in August and, hopefully, we're going to be able to start practicing and competing again."
In the meantime, Covich is going to try and be the best physical education teacher in the neighborhood for his son, Keenan.
That's his No. 1 focus.
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