GREENVILLE, Pa. (Aug. 27) -- The Thiel College Men's and Women's Golf teams enter the 2025 fall campaign excited to build upon last seasons strong showings in the spring portions of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Golf Championships.

Under the leadership of veteran Head Coach Dan McMillen '86, the men's team carded a 62-stroke improvement from the fall championships to the spring championships last year. On the women's side, Thiel placed fourth in the conference championships as then-freshman Kelsi Hefner (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) carded a championship-best 13-stroke round-over-round improvement from round two in the third round (89) of play last season.

The men's team opens play this Saturday at the Pitt Bradford Invitational from Pennhills Club while the women open the fall stretch Sunday at the YSU Fall Kickoff from Mill Creek North.

Below is the full transcript of McMillen and SID Dante Parente's interview where they walked 160 yards at Avalon at Buhl CC.

Parente
Alright, guys. We're here with Head Men's and Women's Golf coach Dan McMillen. We're doing the 2025 season preview. We're going 160 yards to do it. You know what? I think we're going to do 160 yards and we're going to call it the 19th hole. You ready to go, Dan?

McMillen
We're ready to go. All set.

Parente
Let's make it happen. All right, coach. So coming into this 2025 fall season, you know, my kind of thing is how do you kind of manage having coaching a sport where you have two separate seasons where your fall and your spring are both equally important with PAC championships happening in both seasons?

McMillen
Well, we're always in action so uh really no downtime except in November and December, but I think it's a good way to go to school when you think about it. A lot of kids show up in the fall and they have to wait for their sport to start where you start here on day one and you take it right through the season. With the fall season, uh conference championships, 36 holes in the fall. Then we go, uh 36 again in the spring. So, we're always in season. It's always good. Uh like I say, November, December is really your only time off with Thiel College golf.

Parente
So, now what are kind of some of your goals and your expectations for the men's team and the women's team in the fall season?

McMillen
Men's team were going to improve on our record from last year. We had some pretty young players. Freshmen, I think they put in there time and you'll see they'll improve. We we improved immensely from fall '24 to spring '25 last year. So I'm pretty excited about that. Uh on the girls side we lost uh two four-year starters in Alaina Harpst (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) and Taylor Susany (Struthers, Ohio/Struthers) so a little bit of a rebuild there, but I'm excited about those players too. Small team. Uh we got single players but it's a good team. So I'm really excited. We got freshman Grascen Reyburn (Franklin, Pa./Rocky Grove). Emily Eutsey (Jones Mills, Pa./Mount Pleasant), Kelsey Hefner and Megan Bull (Hermitage, Pa./Hickory) round out the team and we got some experience a lot of starters and newcomers so it's going to be fun and going to be exciting.

Parente
Now, you mentioned it there in your answer. So from fall to spring in the conference championships, both on the men's and women's side, you guys had, I believe, it was top two improvements among all PAC teams from your fall score to your spring score. What can you kind of say about that improvement? What led to it and pretty much how proud were were you of your men and your women for making those adjustments and changes heading into the spring?

McMillen
Right. I think our program is, with Ryan Morian, our assistant coach, being as decent as he is, I mean he's been in the business 30-something years. He's great on developing players and I kind of learned that when I came to Thiel with people like Jack Leipheimer and Craig Thurber and Joe Schaly said, 'you know sometimes it's not really what you get out there but it's what you develop.' And that's what we're all about. There's sometimes we get kids that you know they come in here they shoot an 85 or 86 and then they get with Ryan and Coach Wallace and myself and you know over time it's just it doesn't happen overnight, but if you if you put in the time and you put in the hours you can go from shooting 85 86 in high school to shooting 78 at Thiel College, so it's really good. On the women's side, same thing I mean we have girls that come here shooting 105, 110 and by the time they leave they're in the 90 and it's fun, and it's exciting to watch.

Parente
As we get into this 2025 fall season, both the men and the women kicking off events this weekend. Just kind of what's your message to the team and your message to the Thiel community as a whole as you guys get ready to start this fall campaign?

McMillen
It's a long season like you said, we started out here fall and then spring done this way. I think the biggest thing just get out there, get your feet underneath you back in competitive golf. You know, every shot counts. It's not like the summer time when you're playing with your buddies and it's it's you know, it might be your best round ever. So you can't say, 'I'm just going to go out and see what happens.' Uh it could be your bust round ever. So you only know that attitude that it doesn't matter. But on the other hand, it's a long season. I mean honestly I'd like you to play better in the end of October than in September. But you know that's golf in general. We can't pick and choose when want to play good and that's what happens in the tour. You never know what's happening. You never know. Look at Tommy Fleetwood. $10 million and you play well at the right time.

Parente
Awesome guys. We just did the 2025 men's and women's golf season premium. That's Dan McMillan. Both sides in action this weekend. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, opening tournaments. You guys ready, Dan?

McMillen
We're all set. Go Cats.

Parente
Go Tomcats.