D-III Golf Coach Unleashes Epic Post Tournament Rant!

Huntingdon College (motto: "Faith, Wisdom, Service") men's golf coach Matt Mahanic doesn't have the artistry of Lasorda on Bevacqua, or Lasorda's vast and diverse body of work**, or even the staying power of Shelly Dankert's 24 minute election meltdown, but in the world of college golf this has to go down as the epic rant from an NCAA van driver college coach.

Even better, Mahanic's venting followed a 12th place finish, was recorded, then emailed, then forwarded around until Deadspin got a copy.

Barry Petchesky reports and translates a few highlights, though there are many not mentioned as well.

Oh, and you might want to listen to this one with headphones to spare those around you. But be warned, they will want to know what you're laughing at!

**Link repaired.

Update on Friday, November 9, 2012 at 02:05 PM by Geoff

**Machanic didn't make it through the day Friday. For Immediate Friday News Dump:

Huntingdon College President J. Cameron West announced today that the College's director of golf, Matt Mahanic, has been dismissed, effective immediately.

"As a member of Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, we adhere to the principles expressed in the NCAA Bylaws," said West. "To quote the Bylaws, 'Individuals employed by or associated with a member institution to administer, conduct, or coach intercollegiate athletics shall act with ... sportsmanship at all times so that intercollegiate athletics as a whole, their institutions and they, as individuals, represent the honor and dignity of fair play and the generally recognized high standards associated with wholesome competitive sports.'"

Huntingdon College, grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition of the United Methodist Church, is committed to nurturing growth in faith, wisdom, and service and to graduating individuals prepared to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Comments

[pete blaisdell]

I have been involved in sports for a good part of my 63 years as a player , coach , official , sponsor and fan. I've served as a rules official for 35 years and been involved with young players on the local, state, regional and national level. I have served as a member of the NCAA Rules Committee since 1995.I can't measure my disgust after listening to this .

This " coach " and I'm swallowing hard to use that term needs to be relieved of his duties ASAP. This person obviously has issues and is in serious need of anger management therapy.

Huntingdon College has a responsibility here to these young men. No one deserves what they had to endure. This is " off the charts ".

The College needs to take immediate action in this situation. This is disgusting.

[trapdraw]

its good for them, life is tough, the sooner they learn that the better.

[johnnnycz]

Yup...those Huntingdon teams always put on an air of Faith, Wisdom, and Service back in NAIA nationals. What was ironic was how hot headed and whiny they could be. One player from KY (who turned pro) was still cussing about the "F'ed Up" golf course we played in 95 (Bailey Golf Ranch in Tulsa) almost 4 years after the fact.

Let it go dude...it's just golf and be thankful no one died on the highway after that adolescent rant....(I'm assuming the coach was driving)

[d]

Somewhere, Bobby Knight is shedding a tear

[Amen Coroner]

Makes me wonder, if he has one, how long the wife has been making him sleep on the couch?

I coach a new D3 team not even close to being in the same category as Huntingdon but its really sad that he has that much venom inside of him over D3 golf. He sounds like he thinks hes Bear Bryant or Vince Lombardi. Gotta get a grip dude. Its D3 golf. That being said it isnt exactly a coaches dream working with D3 golfers!

[Ludell Hogwaller]

Amen,
As to his reference to recruiting, I know there are no athletic scholarships in D3 football, is it different for D3 golf?

Or are they given "academics"?

[chicago pt]

too bad one of the kids didnt kick his, to use his favorite word, "fucking" ass

Pete B said from lots of experience that this guy needs to go, I hope he does get fired..Geoff, pls let us know if that happens

[digsouth]

''Fucking Hunky-Dory''

I don't know. I thought it was creative how he used the title to The Red Hot Polka Boys new single in his coaching pep talk.

[DTF]

T-O-A-S-T

He will never have the opportunity but just imagine how embarrassed he'd be to walk around the scoreboard now!

[fade]

Having been in that van before It can be rough. I was on that team when we won 3 years ago.
And that's why I left right there! It's just college golf and suppose to be fun! Mahanic can have fun but his rants
lost me as player and ruined what could have been a good college career.

[DTF]

And he can go ahead and send his entry in for the Mid-Am next year, his schedule is about to open up!!!

[smails]

I hope they keep him--because his next stop will be teaching high school/junior golf, and who would inflict that on a young person.

[fade]

These guys got off easy we had to sleep 5 to one hotel room once! The list goes on!

[DTF]

fade, did the Athletic Director or any other university official know that this guy was unhinged? Surely there were complaints? I see he oversees the ladies team as well....

[Buck]

The guy has nothing on some of the Jr hockey coaches I've played for!
They make him seem downright righteous

[Treebeard]

I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!

[Chicago John]

Little surprised at the tone of the comments here. I'm someone who loves Football coaching rants, but this guy seemed so out of line that I genuinely feel bad for the kids.
In football or basketball "trying harder" can matter so using rants as a motivational tool may be questionable, but in some instances it works. I don't think, or very rarely, does "trying harder" make you play golf better.
As we all know things can happen in a golf tournament. The top 4 golfers in the world don't always have a good week at the majors, so if they don't then why expect your 4 best players at a D3 school to?

This guy should be fired immediately and never hired as a teacher anywhere. Maybe he should go coach defensive lineman somewhere.

[fade]

the athletic director is his best bud! I played two years and loved playing college golf! But after every poor round or result we faced this. Not to mention running at 5am until you throw-up and countless other things like eating McDonald's after walking 36 and playing like crap sleeping 5 in a hotel room after being on the road for 2 weeks! He would treat you well for winning and like shit for losing. Not how you build a team and that's why we didn't win a national championship we got close but didnt have that extra edge knowing our coach was behind us thick or thin.

[johnnnycz]

@Fade: Looking at the err...van driver/coach's bio on the college website there's NO mention of his teaching/playing credentials...only that he graduated from the school in the past. What's his story? How did he get the gig in the first place?

I guess I got off lucky, when our team stunk it and finished towards DFL...then coach would just say ONCE "Get your $hit in the van...we're LEAVING!" followed by mostly silence for a few hours until he asked whoever had the best score for the tourney which Buffet restaurant the team is having dinner at.

Now if we won a tourney....then coach would treat us to a posh Japanese Sukiyaki (sp??) meal complete with hot saki! Those were different times though...pretty sure we violated a few NCAA expense regulations.

[fade]

He played at Huntingdon for coach Limbaugh who is at Alabama now. The head pro at Lagoon park was a coach at huntingdon as well. Coach (Say-dee) don't know correct spelling. He was John Dalys roommate at Arkansas and Mahanic Idolizes him. Well he is known for shady deals and gambling and breaking every NCAA rule out there. I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him. And he used to coach just like Mahanic does now. That's about the history of it. This guy (say-dee) thinks John Daly is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that's where I believe the problems begin!

[JB]

His Twitter account has all of a sudden disappeared...

http://mobile.twitter.com/golfhcmahanic

[NRH]

This was awesome. Too bad the guy's career in the industry/google search results are toast because one of his players put it out in digital form.

Make more putts. Don't 3 putt. Don't short side yourself. Put the ball in the fairway. Don't make triples without the benefit of a penalty stroke. Got it.

[Dave M]

I have my resume at hand.

[Amen Coroner]

Ludell,

Correct. D3s give out merit scholarships based on academics for all sports. But I imagine the best programs in any sport across the entire D3 landscape figure out ways to augment the financial package with an array of various endowed scholarships at their disposal. So essentially some are possibly on a scholarship its just a little grey.

Maybe Fade can explain more since he went to an elite D3 for sport....

[digsouth]

Could it be he's just pissed because everyone has misspelled his last name all his life? It is M~A~N~I~A~~C.


And fade--- I think Kevin was just twiddling us with that ''pep talk post''.

Come on yall! I can break 300 on my own! On a good day, I probably shoot under 200, if you don't count the penalty strokes!

[fade]

they give academic grants since there are no athletic scholarships but there are no free rides in D3

[Ryan]

I guess the search for the next US-Ryder-Cup-Captain is over...

[Draw]

Hey fade,

Didn't you fail out........

[ol Harv]

At least he freed up their swings for the following weeks tournaments. Nothing like thinking of coming back to that in the van ride to swing freely at it. I played DII golf and all our coach talked about in the van rides was the chicks on campus that he'd like to bang. He was a dick but this guy takes the crown. DTF--hilarious statement on imagining how he would feel walking around the scoreboard now to the other coaches, even though he'll never know. That was classic.

[Tighthead]

I guess golf is different. Our rugby coach used to hurl c-bombs at us before and after the game, as well as at the half. Slow, fat, dumb, soft, weak, scared, stupid, and useless were the frequent modifiers.

[smails]

diff bet golf and other sports is that, generally, the harder you try, the better you do--football and rugby are particularly good examples of this. Defense in basketball--same thing. In golf, the harder you try, the bigger the snap hook.

Calling me i d---head in the van back just makes me want to quit and get an education to avoid becoming a golf coach, not play better.

[smithens53]

Former college player here. This stuff is pretty standard. I guarantee there were at least 2 kids in the back row of the bus trying like crazy to hold back laughter. I miss college golf.

[Shocker]

http://www.huntingdonhawks.com/sports/mgolf/2012-13/releases/201211091wtth1

[Amen Coroner]

Come on Fade how do the same D3 teams stay at the top especially the ones not in CA, TX, NC, GA, etc...? You gonna tell me that they don't figure out a way to make it more or less free as in under $5-10k out of pocket per year so that it looks kinda like a state school situation?

[Stanley Thompson]

Sticks and stones etc
Btu, he WAS a bit over the top.
Time to seek a new career in another field.

[ol Harv]

Amen, the strongest DIII programs don't give athletic scholarships but they use multiple other things like academic and other grants, plus work study money to offset the cost. Most of the strong programs are the ones with the history in the program like Methodist(NC) Guilford(NC) Greensboro(NC), a few in Cali and Florida, and then some other scattered ones including Huntington. Many of the 1 and 2 guys on these teams could play on a good DI team. In fact the last couple of DIII individual champions transferred to DI teams after winning the titles, and played.

[Christopher Crawford]

What a bunch of pu$$ies. My mom got upset when my sister and I used wire hangers. Do you know how hard it was to break 300 under those conditions?

[Doctor]

Most coaches go off like that on occasion. If you secretly polled PGA Tour players on their college golf days, the vast majority would tell you they had coaches go off like that. It's one of those things everybody knows, but nobody will admit to. The indignation is absurd. And shame on the 80s-shooting kid who taped him secretly.

[fade]

Yeah well with academic grants it cost me over 12,000 a year. Without it, would have cost 30,000. Fact is its D3 golf and this display of anger is a lack of respect for the university and the players and parents who pay for it. I don't agree on the way all this went down. I think it could have been handled differently. But the bottom line is, in today's world you can't say things without being heard by someone, it was a matter of time before this came to light! I always thought it was a shame he acted this way because it made me think less of someone I thought I liked and trusted. I feel sorry for him and his family this is unfortunate, but there really is no excuse for this! That's not what golf is. A cool, calm, collective attitude is what allows you to execute your shot and leads to consistency not blaring music on the way to a final round of national championship, or tearing your players down after a poor performance.

[Average Golfer]

PC world. My high school football coach makes this guy sound like a beginner. Boys need some gator hide. Life is tough.