Getting Home Came First for Cilek's Team
Reuniting with an international roster has kept team busy
Luke Zahlmann
Sitting at her desk, coach Laura Cilek received the news first, before even her team could.
On March 12th, the NCAA cancelled what was left of Colorado State women’s golf’s season. Three events remained in their season, including a chance to improve on last year’s finish at the Mountain West Championships.
The news spurned several text messages and alerts to those around the program. First on the to-do list after the texts were flights. Getting refunds for future flights was important, but even more important was ensuring each of the five international golfers on her roster would be able to get home.
Considering the closure of nearly all international flights in recent weeks, it’s a good thing Cilek did – a first step in a winding road to adjust to having players overseas again.
“We really worked with them to ensure they could get back and get home,” Cilek said. “We went to dinner as a team right before they left, because we didn’t know if they were going to be coming back or not.”
Soon after, the team began to shuttle luggage from player’s homes to the team’s facility on Harmony Road. International flights hardly resemble a moving truck, so a couple of suitcases were all they had.
Since then (a span of 56 days) the team has played adjustor. Each golfer has been given their old swing coaches back – a positive for many and a sense of familiarity in a wicked time – but they were also given distance between teammates.
Due to more than half the team living overseas, the squad had to get creative. Time changes and limited availability have all led to once-a-week meetings on Thursdays. Those meetings have spanned from therapeutic talks to virtual competitions.
“We just talk about what we’ve been doing and what’s been frustrating,” freshman Gabby Minier said. “We also have little fun games that we create each week. Last week, we had juggling challenges with our wedges – we saw how many times we could bounce the ball on the club.”
The game is simple but allows a sense of normalcy. On any given day, the same competition could break out around practice time, but now it’s been given more meaning.
For workouts, the team once again faces the struggle of being apart. One of the opening questions of their post-dismissal meetings was, “What’s available?” From full weight rooms at some houses, to simple household materials at others, Cilek sought to figure out the best ways to encourage her athletes to stay in shape.
Now that we’ve seen golf be taken away, or put on pause for a while, hopefully we’ll all appreciate it more. Even the little things like being able to see your teammates at practice. It doesn’t last forever, and it’s easy to get in those moments and forget how cool of an experience it really is.Laura Cilek, Women's Golf Coach
“They’re just trying to get outside anyway they can,” Cilek said. “One of our golfers, Tomine, she was like, ‘It was pouring rain, but I still needed to get outside and work out,’ so she was outside, in pouring rain, working out because she needed to get out of the house.
“Things like that, where in normal circumstances you probably would’ve just went to the gym, but she was in rain getting her workout in. I think they’re doing the best they can with what they have. No one’s complained.”
Things like a weight room are often taken for granted. Even an open course, free of restrictions is something so common on a daily basis, but something most of the team now has no access to at this time. Moving forward, those things won’t be forgotten.
“Now that we’ve seen golf be taken away, or put on pause for a while, hopefully we’ll all appreciate it more,” Cilek said. “Even the little things like being able to see your teammates at practice. It doesn’t last forever, and it’s easy to get in those moments and forget how cool of an experience it really is.”