The Nicholls State men’s and women’s golf teams will be starting their spring season next week after strong finishes towards the end of the fall campaign. In November the Lady Colonels finished ninth in the Troy Invitational, their last match of the fall semester, while the Colonels finished tenth in the Battle on the Bend.Head coach James Schilling is in his eighth season as head coach and is looking to build on the success his team has seen in recent years. “We want to win all the tournaments we can,” Schilling said. “With the schedule we play, we want to be in the upper half of most of the tournaments we’re in.”

On the men’s side Schilling has nine players, four of which have at least two or more years of experience on the team. “We’re looking for continued improvement there,” Schilling said. “Sometimes it’s up and down, so we want consistency.”

The Colonels will play in four tournaments before the start of the Southland Conference Championships on April 17. The team will travel to play in the BellSouth Intercollegiate at Jackson State, then to Samford for the Samford Intercollegiate.

A week later the team will travel to Stephen F. Austin to play in the Crown Classic before finishing the non-conference schedule at the Hal Sutton Invitational hosted by Centenary.

“As long as we practice hard and play well I think we have a great shot in the conference,” senior Steve Luminais said.

The Lady Colonels roster only has five members but is dominated by youth. Heather Tate is the only senior and returning letter winner on the team. “Two of my lowest scorers are sophomores, so we are kind of rebuilding” Schilling said. “They have at least two more years of college golf, and hopefully we can get some of the magic we had last year down the road.”

The spring season will kick off for the women at Jackson State in the Ann Rhoads Southern Shootout. Soon after the team will be at Centenary to play in the Ladies Invitational.

The Lady Jaguar Invitational at South Alabama and Samford Women’s Intercollegiate are the last two competitions before the start of the conference tournament on April 10.

Schilling said there is no clear way to tell who the top teams in the conference are, so he hopes the schedule has prepared his teams for what they will face at the conference tournament.

“We try to play as tough a schedule as we can going into the conference tournament,” he said. “There are a couple of conference teams at some of these tournaments, but most play a completely different schedule than us.”

Because of the hurricanes last semester, the teams were not able to practice and participate in as many tournaments, but Schilling is confident in his players.

“The hurricanes really hurt our practice and playing schedule, and when some of the players go home they can’t play,” he said. “Luckily the weather has been good for us so far, and I know we will be ready for the tournaments.