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When talking to women’s golf head coach Sammie Chergo about family, it’s hard to determine whether the conversation is about her immediate family or the athletes she has coached over the years.
She is passionate about both. For Chergo, coaching is a lifelong association of staying in contact with all of her former and current players, establishing a system where she shares her life with all her players.
“The key to our success is family,” said Chergo, who was named Golf Person of the Year last month by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame for the second consecutive season.
The success that Chergo is talking about is the women’s golf program at DU, which she helped build from the ground up since arriving at the school in November 1997.
Chergo, a Denver native, was DU’s first women’s head golf coach, and since then has established the golf program as one of the best in the nation.
“I was 26 or 27 when we had our inaugural season as a program,” Chergo recalls. “That first season was one of my most special seasons, we were so young and really excited. I am just so thankful for the women who committed to our program that year.”
In her 12 years of coaching, the team has won seven consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships and is a perennial contender in the NCAA Regional tournament.
The school earned its first NCAA tournament berth in 2002, but has blossomed since, finishing as high as No. 5 at the NCAA National Championship tournament in 2009.
However, all the success isn’t what makes the process rewarding for Chergo, who finds something in coaching that not everybody does.
“Of course I remember all the finishes and all the tournaments,” said Chergo. “However, I think of every player I’ve ever had; all the time I spent with them, helping them grow. Those are by far my favorite memories.”
As for individual awards, Chergo was named the All-Time Sun Belt Conference Women’s Golf Coach in 2006 and has taken home coach of the year honors five times.
Despite her accolades, Chergo says she is still motivated to improve as a coach and is lucky because her position requires her to do so.
“I am lucky that I have a job where my players’ enthusiasm and talents drive me to become a better coach,” said Chergo. “I want to get better, so they can do better.”
Through research on coaching, the coach believes she can learn and challenge herself.
When she recruits, Chergo goes after players who are as equally motivated as she is.
“Our players must be motivated before they get here,” said Chergo. “We are grooming future leaders here and in order to be a leader you must want to get better everyday and not just as a golfer. We want our women to be better students and community members.”
Finding the right players and grooming them accordingly has not been a problem for Chergo. Players finding individual and team success under Chergo has been relatively easy as well.
However, it is off the green and out of college, where an individual player can still find Chergo’s relentless presence in their life.
“It is a huge joy having all my players in my life, sharing life with them is the best part of my job,” said Chergo.
As for her real, biological family, Chergo still has strong ties. Her entire family lives in Colorado, which means she has been able to share all the special moments of the years with both her DU family and her actual family.
“The Pioneer family is a lot like my family, everything we do, we do very close together,” said Chergo.
