University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant golf coach Ben Rickett knows the seniors on the team like brothers.
They were teammates for three seasons. They seek his advice and council as they would any other friend.
To the freshmen, on the other hand, he is Coach Rickett.
“I can give the younger guys more of a yelling at,” Rickett said. “I have to take different perspectives with different people. I have the guys I played with, and then there’s guys that came in as like my first class.”
The native of Surrey, England, played four years at UTC before moving into a role as a student assistant for this past season. With his recent graduation, he now assumes the title of assistant coach for the men’s and women’s golf teams.
“He’s a full-time coach and it’s going to be nice to have the help,” coach Mark Guhne said. “I want him to learn everything involved with college coaching.”
Rickett has been part of the traveling party all season and will be with the Mocs next week in San Diego when they play in the NCAA regional tournament. A top-five finish there gets them back home for the NCAA championships at The Honors Course.
Guhne gives Rickett some credit for helping the Mocs reach the regional. He gives him a hard time, too.
“He helps organize practice, he’s helping me identify and go through files to pick out players we want to watch, and he’s getting his credentials to be able to go on the road recruiting,” Guhne said. “He’s also starting to find out about the other side of coaching — the compliance meetings, the budget meetings, the staff meetings.”
Rickett missed out on a lot of the business minutia this past season while he attended classes to finish work on his degree.
“I wanted to stay in college golf, but they only let you play for four years, so the next best thing is to stay involved with coaching,” Rickett said. “I wasn’t sure about it when I first started, but it turns out that I love it.”
Freshman Alex Ratliff sought Rickett’s advice last fall when he struggled for several consecutive rounds with tee shots. A long talk with Rickett straightened out his drives.
“Because of his age, it’s like he’s in between a coach and player,” Ratliff said. “He knows what it’s like to be in both situations.”