Feature: Harrington's Squad Continues To Make Strides

On the plane ride home from Arizona in early March, there was a sense that a change was coming. On paper, Little Rock had a disappointing result at the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate, tying for 11th among the 12-team field. But for the Trojans, it was seen as the spring's tipping point.
 
"We hadn't played well to start the spring with two bad tournaments out of the first three," said senior Logan Pate. "After that first day in Arizona, we had a team meeting and kind of laid it all out on the table. The next day we had a solid final round, and we were coming back to Little Rock with a heartbeat because of the way we responded."
 
The Trojans had high expectations heading into the spring season, and for good reason. At the end of the fall portion of the schedule, Little Rock found itself ranked 65th in the GolfStat national rankings, the Trojan's best mid-season ranking in nearly 20 years.
 
The team had finished in the top-six in each of the four events in the fall, including a 6-under 846 at the Trinity Forest Invitational, the fifth-lowest 54-hole score in program history.
 
Little Rock's resurgence was head coach Jake Harrington's primary focus when he was named head coach in 2013. Taking over a program ranked in the 200s when he arrived, Harrington has helped form the Trojans into a team that ranks among the top-100 nationally and is emerging as Sun Belt Conference contenders.
 
"My biggest goal here is to help build a culture that translates into success," Harrington said. "We may not be able to get the recruits that Oklahoma State and Arizona State has, but we can have a work ethic that beats those guys. This is a special golfing community, and when you get guys that buy in to that, there is nothing more powerful."
 
That hard work has translated to success on the course, and is demonstrated by the events Little Rock is able to fill out its schedule with. This season alone, the Trojans received invitations to compete in tournaments hosted by North Texas, Arizona, Michigan and Stanford – events that would have been pipe dreams just a few seasons ago.
 
"I want my guys to be able to compete against some of the best golfers in the world," Harrington said. "Our improvement in the national rankings has been noticed and has earned us opportunities to play in those tournaments against the best and see the Little Rock name right there with some of the sport's elite programs. The guys we've had come through his program the last six to seven years have laid the ground work to help us get into those tournaments."
 
One of those that has seen the transformation of the program first hand is Logan Pate, one of two seniors on this year's squad that has been a constant contributor for the past four seasons. The Richmond, Texas native has amassed 91 rounds played in a Trojan uniform with a career scoring average of 73.77, ranking eighth all-time in program history.
 
In 2019-20, Pate was solidifying his role as the Trojans' senior leader, leading the team with a 73.86 average and seven rounds of par-or-better. He had posted three top-20 individual finishes through the first seven events, tying for ninth at the Trinity Forest Invitational with a 4-under 209, and had been the top Trojan finisher at the Desert Mountain Invitational, tying for 17th overall and carding an even-par 72 in round three.
 
"The funny thing is, that final round in Arizona, I was with our assistant coach, Patrick Sullivan, the entire day, and we had a motto to play each shot like it was my last shot," recalled Pate. "Little did we know how true that mind set would be."
 
But as fate would have it, that even-par round in Scottsdale would be the final round of the season for Pate and his teammates. As was the case with thousands of student-athletes across the country, he watched like everyone else as events around the world were canceled. Along with that came the realization that he may have just played his final round of collegiate golf – and not even known it.
 
"Once the NBA and other professional sports leagues began canceling, I knew we were next," recalled Pate. "It gave me a little bit of time to come to terms that we weren't going to play another tournament this season. I was able to prepare for it a little bit, but honestly, I'm still a little shocked with everything."
 
For both Pate and Harrington, the frustration didn't come necessarily from the tournaments they would no longer compete in, but rather from knowing the momentum the team was starting to build would come to a sudden halt.
 
It was that momentum the Trojans were hoping would culminate this week in El Dorado for what would have been the Sun Belt Conference Championship at Mystic Creek. Little Rock was especially looking forward to the event for a pair of reasons – it is a course they have played a number of times in its own backyard, and the team was focused on putting the mistakes of last season behind them.
 
"Mystic Creek is one of the most challenging courses we've played, and it is a course that rewards you for strategy, which is what my philosophy is," Harrington said. "I believe we were one of the top four teams in the conference this year, and I think we were on the verge of doing some good things as we were coming into our own. I think we were the team nobody would want to face if we did make it to match play, especially on that course."
 
"That was the hardest part about it all because I knew what we could accomplish over the final four tournaments," Pate said. "We'd kind of found new life and were looking to make a run over the last stretch leading up to Mystic Creek. In Destin the last few years, the tournament was a shootout. This year, it would have played to our strengths a little better."
 
For now, Little Rock has to sit and wait with the rest of the sporting world for normalcy to return and give the Trojans a chance to return to the course. And while this break from the game isn't one Pate was expecting, it has given him a chance to redevelop the appreciation he has with the game of golf.
 
"It's been, I don't know how many weeks now since we've been able to play, and I miss the routine I was in," said Pate. "I miss everything about it, and that's what I wasn't prepared for. I wasn't prepared to not see my friends and teammates, possibly ever again. Golf has been my life for so long, that it just makes me miss what I had."
 
If there is a bright spot in all of this, it came on March 30 when the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to spring sport athletes who had their seasons cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. For Pate, it gives him the opportunity to close out his collegiate career the way he intended as he is spending the off time getting things in place to hopefully return to the Trojans for another year in 2020-21.
 
For Harrington, it would be an added bonus to a young and talented team looking to make the next step.

Little Rock will lose an experienced senior in Danial Durisic, who already had arranged a graduate assistantship at Illinois State before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Trojans return both Anton Albers and Marcel Rauch, a pair of sophomores who were coming into their own. Add in some new recruits on the horizon, and its easy to see why Harrington is optimistic Little Rock will continue to make its mark on the national stage.
 
"To get Logan back would be huge for us as he's a leader both on the course and off," said Harrington. "That would give us four of five starters back for next year, and to have that group more seasoned and experienced, it makes me very excited for next season as we continue to build this program. You add on the newcomers we will have as well, it will give us the depth to really compete and take this program to the next level."
 
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