Despite being a fall sport, women’s golf is preparing for its 2025-26 season early this winter by setting its coaching staff. The team recently announced Green Hope’s Nathaniel Denton as head coach, a promising asset for the team’s future success in the upcoming school year. Denton has coached many teams at Green Hope, including flag football, women’s tennis and women’s basketball, and is excited to begin coaching women’s golf. The GH Falcon recently sat down with him to get insight into his commitment to the coaching position and discuss his hopes and goals for the team.
Like every program, coaching golf has its unique advantages that differentiate it from other sports. Having coached it at other high schools for around half a decade has allowed Denton insight into the benefits of the position. “I think it really allows, more than any sport, an opportunity to get players to know the coach, coaches to know the players, and players to know each other,” shares Denton. Compared to the previous sports he’s coached, the golf roster is significantly smaller. “There’s an intimacy with golf to begin with, and there’s also the small sample size of the roster that helps a lot [in forming connections].” The connections formed will ultimately aid in personalized advice, leading to personal, team, and program growth and success.
The benefits of the sport, alongside his previous success in coaching, have greatly influenced Denton’s decision to continue his golf coaching career at Green Hope. His favorite five years of his professional career took place while coaching men’s and women’s golf, heavily motivating him to share his love for the sport with Green Hope’s athletes. “I chose it because in the past I’ve enjoyed the experience and I’ve had some success in the experience of coaching it,” shares Denton, reflecting on the “why” behind his decision. Additionally, Green Hope has some incredibly talented athletes that he defines as “young talent.” Deton has formed relationships with these athletes and their families, hopeful for their success and development. “I think part of it is that I’ve got some preexisting relationships with families that are in the program, and I think that was kind of the biggest push,” shares Denton.
Although he hasn’t officially begun working with the team as a whole yet, Denton has goals for the impact he hopes to have on them throughout their season. He shared that his biggest goal is to create a sense of enjoyment for the sport within his players, motivating them to push themselves to improve and succeed. “Golf is a difficult sport, and if you don’t enjoy getting better, you won’t get better,” shares Denton. He reflected on his potential coaching tactics that he believes will help him achieve his goal of enjoyment alongside success. “I’m going to try to bring in an angle of work intensity, but also positivity.”
Additionally, he hopes to create a team-centered dynamic, despite golf being an individual sport. Although scores are personalized, the relationships formed between players impact the environment and overall success. “ It’s an individual sport, but I want them to know first and foremost that you’re playing for the person beside you,” shares Denton. “While you’re trying to get an individual score, your score is part of something bigger.” Through the creation of a unified, positive atmosphere, his goals of both a strong team dynamic and a sense of enjoyment can be achieved.
Despite success being a subjective idea, Denton has motives as to what that means for him and the future team. “The growth of the program has to start. We need to get more people interested in coming out,” Denton shares. Despite the small roster allowing for personalized connections between all members of the team, it prevents growth and development for the program as a whole in future years. “I think that the number one indicator of success is the amount of people wanting to participate in [the program]. The numbers need to grow,” he said.
And so the countdown to fall sports begins. Despite being months away, the Green Hope women’s golf team is likely to be successful for seasons to come.
