MAAC Coaching Spotlight – Iona’s Sean Burke
Edison, N.J. (May 19, 2020) – Iona College Men’s Golf Head Coach Sean Burke sat down with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) to provide insights on the Iona program, the canceled 2020 season, and how he would fare playing against his own players. Burke has led the Gaels to the past two MAAC Men’s Golf Championships, being named MAAC Coach of the Year in both seasons.
Q: What does it mean to you to win two-straight MAAC Championships? What does it mean to you to be named MAAC Coach of the Year by your piers those same seasons?
A: Both are great honors, a byproduct of the guys on the team and how hard they worked and how hard they push themselves and their desire to be great. We talked about that, wanting to be successful, wanting to be competitive, and everything we do and ultimately compete at that stage. To have that crew be successful has been really rewarding and makes me really proud. The byproduct is MAAC Coach of the Year, which I'm proud of and I like getting the respect from my peers, but I'm much more proud of the way our guys have performed under the pressure at those tournaments.
Q: Does Iona have a “home” course? Where is it and what are your thoughts on it?
A: The place where we play the most is Wykagyl Country Club, which is an awesome golf course. It’s really challenging and always kept in really great condition. Unfortunately, we don’t get out there as often as we would like or as we need, but we have great relationships with a lot of courses in the Westchester County area, which are tremendous and provide us with great variety and a great experience for our student-athletes throughout their time at Iona. It can really challenge and test their games on different courses that require different strategies and different shots, which is hopefully in great preparation for those shots we'll see in tournaments.
Q: About how many different courses does your team play on in a season?
A: I tracked it my first couple years and we were up to about 25 courses. It might be down a little bit the past couple of years as we've gotten a little more access to a few other places that have filled some of the days.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Disney Magnolia Golf Course?
A: The golf course is great. I think it's a great test of golf, it provides the perfect challenge for our guys. It's a fair of course, there's no tricks to it. So, if you go down and play it well, you're going to have a great chance to be in the mix. As a golf course though it works very well for what we're looking for as a cap to end the year.
Q: In your opinion, what is the best course you have personally played on? What is the best course you’ve brought student-athletes to?
A: We've been very fortunate, and I have been very fortunate being in this position, to play some of the best courses in the world, frankly. It's hard to pick one when you have a list of Winged Foot, Sleepy Hollow, Bears Club, and Copper Hills. These are some of the best courses anywhere. We're really fortunate to have gotten great access to a lot of really good courses. My favorite would probably be when we go over to Ireland and we play at Portmarnock. The history of that place is amazing, and I've always played well when we've been there, so that helps!
Q: On a perfect day, what is your longest drive?
A: Can I just say further than Krit [Oukosavanna]? He will get a kick out of that. But probably somewhere in that 275-280 range would be my max number these days.
Q: Have you ever hit a hole in one?
A: I have not, still waiting. I’ve declared it was going to happen about 50 times though, so one of these times I will be right. My closest is actually on a par 4, two rounds in a row I hit it about a foot away from the cup.
Q: Who would win in a match, you or your student-athletes?
A: Well, they better win! I’m a former Division III golfer, they want to be high-end Division I golfers. I can hold my own with them for portions of rounds, but they are all pretty high-end golfers. Over the course of a round they really can give it to me. I won’t tell them that and I'll certainly hold my own in a match against them, but they are all great. The work ethic they have, the practice sessions, the drive, they don't want to take days off. They want to get better every day, and that's a true testament to their personalities and their desire to really get to the highest level that they can in this game.
Q: What was your personal reaction to the canceled season? How were student-athletes informed and what was their reaction?
A: It was sad not knowing then what we know now. It was very sudden and shocking that they would be canceling stuff that was over a month away. That was the challenge, and obviously New Rochelle was the initial hotspot, so there was craziness resulting just from that that. But the worst part was knowing that we had a great chance for a three-peat. There are some great teams in our league, Rider, Saint Peter’s, and Siena had some great players and good tournaments. I like the way we were trending. To say that this was kind of the end of the road to a really good two to three-year run was tough. When we told the guys, it was the same thing. A lot of sadness and shock. The desire to say, you know, is there any hope of getting this season back? It was hard to say that it wasn’t going to happen, that it's over. When the NCAA came out and started talking about the extra year, that made things a little easier to deal with. Just to know that, hey maybe it's not over, hey maybe we have the shot for this group to make another run at it. My hope is we'll come back strong and ready to roll next year, and in an odd way look for a three-peat.
Q: What were your thoughts on the season before it was canceled? Anybody stand out?
A: I felt like we were trending really well in the right direction. We played very inconsistently in the fall, but we had some really good rounds and some weather shortened competitions that we never really got to step on the gas pedal for. It kind of felt like it was that first championship year. We were the kind of team that could put it together for a round, but couldn't put it together for a whole tournament. But we knew that once this happens, that we would be really good. Obviously, we knew the talent that we had this year and we are looking forward to really making a run for it. We figured that, hey, if we make it down to Disney and we play our best, we will have a shot to be right there with anyone else because I don't think anybody was head and shoulders above anyone else this year in the MAAC. Like I said, Rider had some really good tournaments, but when we played head-to-head with them it was fairly close each time. I felt like it was coming, we just needed to really get that good practice or tournament to get it all going. We have three guys on the team that we thought would be contending for an individual MAAC title. Oisin Devereux was second in the league last year, he was really playing well with a few top-fives throughout the year. Justin Burkhamer was really starting to perform well. He finished second in the league two years ago. Kritsarin Oukosavanna is just very steady and when he gets his game going, he's got a very high ceiling as well. We kind of looked at it like those three were in a really good position to contend for the individual crown, as well as carrying us to hopefully another championship. From there, you know, the other guys have shown flashes that we're looking for with depth. Matt Mirocco played really solid throughout the year and Colin Sutyla and Will Fleck were both trending in the right direction. We were really looking forward to heading into spring break and getting some good practice in and rolling right through the next couple of tournaments that the spring was holding for us.
Q: Have student-athletes been golfing during the pandemic?
A: Yeah, it's been hit-and-miss. Where they can do it, they have, but one of the guys is still in New Rochelle and he can't get out and play since everything is shut down and he's international, so he can drive to a course. Other guys are down in Florida or out west where there's a little bit more access. But right now, we aren't as concerned with getting them out and playing. We're still so far away from getting back on campus next year that right now we're telling them to catch a breath, make sure your family is healthy, get your body right, stay sharp, and prepare and finish finals. As summer goes on, we will hopefully start to ramp it up and get more intense on practice and playing. Hopefully come September there's no more virus-related issues on campus and tournaments and we can get after it again.
Q: How does this affect your recruiting efforts?
A: It's been a challenge. The biggest impact is going to be that we won't see very many scores for the class of 2021. We've already signed the class for next year, so that won’t be impacted, but going forward it'll obviously play a role. We've been getting some phone calls in and chatting with some guys through email. We are hoping that come mid-June to sometime in July we get to see some tournaments and see some guys. If we get there, at least we can make some decisions based on this year's stuff and not just from last year. It might delay it in the long run. Right now, it's just the opening stages. We have to see how the junior schedule plays out. Hopefully, with the PGA Tour coming back down the line, we will start to see some junior tournaments start to pop up as well.
Q: What do you look for in a student-athlete when recruiting?
A: It all starts with the golf game, their ability to play well. Golf is different than a lot of other sports in the sense that there's only one person out there, it’s you versus the course. It is what it is. If you can play well, that will be first and foremost. We look for good character, good students, and from there we start to dive into the golf game. The tournament schedules and the level of play. There's no excuses though. We're looking for those guys that can put up those low numbers consistently, and then from there, like I said, we're looking for good students and good people. We're looking for people that will get the most out of their education at Iona. When their time is done, they move on to the rest of their life much more prepared and make the most out of all the opportunities that we're able to provide them on the course, in the community, and in the classroom.
Q: How do you stay in contact with your team during the pandemic?
A: We haven't done all that much. We've done a couple Zoom calls as a team when we first got home, just to make sure everyone was keeping up with school and keeping their sanity and staying well and healthy. We have a pretty lively group chat where everybody can bust my chops and I'll send out reminders and talk about final exams. If anybody needs anything, they can reach out to me or the academic staff. We're not really focused on any golf specific workouts at this point, it's just more that they're doing their school work for their finals and that them and their families are staying safe and healthy.
Q: What have you personally been doing during the pandemic?
A: Trying to stay sane. I have two young daughters at home, thank God my wife is a lot more patient than I am. The whole homeschooling, I don't do that much, but trying to make sure they stay up on that stuff. My yard looks good, I hit about three golf balls a day into the net in my backyard. Every once in a while, I'll get on the golf course and play a couple holes. Good to see some friends out there since we can social distance on the golf course a couple times a week. Just going out there is nice and keeps everything in balance. It's certainly going to be a challenge. It's crazy to think it's only been two months; it feels like it's been forever. Some days are super long and other days are a little easier to get through, but hopefully we get through this safe and healthy and we get back online and back to that new normal sooner rather than later.
Q: What is the first thing you are going to do when allowed back on campus?
A: It depends on when the guys get back on campus and when we can practice. That'll be great. We can get back to spending time with them and seeing how their golf games have progressed and start to ramp up more for competition. We're going to have a fairly large roster next year compared to what we've had the last two years, that creates a little bit more opportunity for guys to really shine and earn a spot. We do a lot of stuff competitively within our practices. Being able to spend that time with them will be the biggest benefit. It’s fun hanging out with them and watching them work and challenging them and just enjoying the time. We have great experiences playing practice rounds and riding around in vans together. It's a very loose team and a very enjoyable atmosphere. We want to be successful and be great and we're driving to that, but we're also enjoying it. We enjoy the ride, so to speak. That is what has been the biggest part of missing out. Yes, we want to have the competitions and an opportunity to impact these young adults and see their future start to take shape. We like to really play a role in that and really enjoy it, that's kind of been the toughest part. They really take this experience and opportunity great. We enjoy it and that's kind of what the motto is, what we try to do. If we can have fun while we're working really hard, we're getting the best of both worlds. That's what I'm really looking forward to. That practice range and practice green. Mixing it up with them and really challenging them and watching them grow.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 39
th year of competition during the 2019-20 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.