There is a grinder with the same drive and grittiness that made Mann a multi-sport athlete, a senior bell cow whose leadership abilities mimic his coach’s inspirational skills, and a steady player whose unwavering performances mirror the stability that has allowed Mann to coach for just two institutions his entire career.
Throw in a younger player who rapidly raised his game to another level - like Mann’s transformation to golf guru - and a talented newcomer with the same golden touch his coach has shown no matter the sport, and there you have it.
There is the man whose final curtain call as a coach will be a dandy and the team that will compete for its first NCAA title.
UMHB will tee off at 8 a.m. today as it makes its first appearance in the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships at Chateau Elan Resort in Braselton, Ga.
The Crusaders - American Southwest Conference champions - are part of a 35-team field that will play two rounds before being whittled to 23 squads for the final two days.
The event will be Mann’s final competition as a coach - he begins his full-time role as UMHB’s associate director of athletics in June - capping a 29-year career that saw him coach football, basketball, baseball, track and golf.
And the joy of seeing his players achieve their goal of competing for a national title is mixed with the realization that this will be the Texas native’s final rodeo.
“I still ask myself, ‘How am I going to deal with this because I’ve been a coach forever?’” Mann said. “It’s going to be different, but I think I’ll find other outlets where I can still mentor kids.”
It is his ability to mentor athletes, to build them up so that they could achieve things they didn’t know were possible, that likely will be Mann’s legacy as a coach.
This season is a prime example. With competitive senior Ryan Eastman, senior leader Casey Wharton, steady junior David Dewald, suddenly dependable sophomore fifth-man Garrison Nordt and rising sophomore star Eric White, the longtime coach melded the group into a united team.
“The difference this year is that all five of us were ready when it came time for the conference tournament,” Wharton said. “(Mann) is more of a psychological coach than a mechanical one. He tries to help you think your way around a golf course, and this year we all knew what we needed to do.”
Added Nordt: “He’s a lot more organized than other golf coaches I’ve had. He always has everything set as far as times for this and times for that. So when we get to a tournament, we know exactly what the schedule is and what to expect.”
Mann, a multi-sport high school athlete at Dublin who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tarleton State, began his coaching career in 1980 with a two-year stint at Temple’s Lamar Middle School. That was followed by one year at Travis Middle School before he spent the next 16 years at Temple High School.
His first seven years on the Wildcats staff were spent coaching football, basketball, baseball and track, and he credits former Temple football coach Bob McQueen with some of his success.
“Coaching those other sports helped me with organization more than anything else,” Mann said. “The most organized guy I’ve ever been around is Bob McQueen, and he taught that to all of us on his staff. He taught us to always have a plan and be prepared.”
But wanting more time to spend with his young family at home, Mann jumped at the chance to become Temple’s golf coach when the job came open in 1992.
“I haven’t regretted that decision one bit, even though I had to change the way I coached,” he said. “It’s definitely different coaching football and coaching golf.
“The mentality is different when you’re coaching golf, and I had to learn how to deal with coaching girls.”
Then in 1999, Mann made the jump to UMHB and the collegiate coaching ranks.
“UMHB’s athletic program was growing,” he said. “And when I looked into it, I realized that the people make the difference at Mary Hardin-Baylor, and I knew I wanted to work there and be a part of that.”
It wasn’t a long road - from Temple to UMHB - but the jump from a self-taught golfer as a youngster to the coach of a national championship contender was a considerable one.
“I was spending a couple of weeks with a cousin one year when I was about 12, and my uncle took us to play golf,” Mann recalled. “I swung like a baseball player, but I was hooked. My dad joined the country club and I started going out there every day in about the seventh grade. I was self-taught and picked up some things from the old men who played out there.
“I’ve always known I wanted to be a coach. There’s no other profession where you can play all of your life and get paid for it. Growing up, I just didn’t picture myself as a golf coach.”
Regardless of the picture in his mind, the finished painting is of Mann as a golf coach, and the final brush strokes will be applied this week.
UMHB will open the national tournament on Chateau Elan’s 6,735-yard, par-72 Woodlands Course before teeing off at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday in the second round on the 7,030-yard, par-71 Chateau course.
The Woodlands is known more for its rolling terrain and blind shots, while the Chateau features 87 bunkers and water that comes into play on 10 holes. Both courses have bent grass greens.
The layouts will be a change from the relatively flat courses UMHB is accustomed to, but the putting surfaces should be similar to the bent greens played on at the ASC event.
And with the way they have played in the last two months, the Crusaders like their chances.
“Going into conference, I don’t think we were planning on winning it but the possibility was definitely there. We couldn’t be counted out,” Wharton said. “I think nationals are the same way. We’re not going up there acting like we have it won. But if everybody plays well, then look out.”
The Crusaders have certainly been playing well.
White, who has been playing the game for only a few years, finished the three-round ASC tourney at 2-under-par 214 to win the individual title.
Eastman showed his competitive spirit by bouncing back from a first-round 77 to finish second. Dewald was steady again with a fifth-place showing. Wharton led the final-round charge with a 71 to finish ninth, and Nordt shot 78 in all three rounds to come in 20th.
“The whole year we had relied on our top three - the two seniors and Davis,” Mann said. “They’ve been here and they had been tested. But it was the play of Eric and Garrison that we focused on this spring.”
The work paid off.
“Eric is just a raw talent,” Mann said. “He’s fairly new to the game so there’s still a lot of stuff he’s learning. Talent wise, it’s obvious he’s got it. He’s just learning how to play smart.”
White is eager to follow up on his title run through the conference tournament.
“They have bent grass greens and that’s what I like,” he said. “I putted very well at conference on bent grass, so I’m excited about that.”
Nordt has also picked up his game to become a dependable option.
“We said, ‘Garrison, here’s where you are. You’re in the fifth slot,’” Mann explained. “‘We need to get where you shoot 76 to 78 every time. Don’t give us that 80 or 81.’
“Somewhere somebody’s going to falter and have a bad day. But if you can throw a 77 or 78 in there to count, we’re not going to be bad off. His stroke average this spring was 78.”
For the teams that make the cut, the national tournament will be the only 72-hole event they play all year. But it’s not the cutline that’s on the Crusaders’ mind.
“I know we’re plenty capable of making the cut,” Dewald said. “I’m thinking that if we play the same as we did at conference, maybe just a little better, then we’ll be in contention to be in the top three or even win it.”
Wharton concurred.
“Everything we’ve done up until now is what’s going to get us where we’re going,” he said. “There’s no need to change it.”
Regardless of their finish, the Crusaders have set a new standard for the men’s golf program and are sending their likeable coach out in grand fashion.
“Just before the conference tournament, I had this feeling that, ‘You know, we’ve worked hard. If we just go out there and play, then we have a chance,’” Eastman said. “I didn’t know how good that chance was going to be, but I knew we had a chance.
“No matter what happens now, I’ll think of this year as a success. Just to be able to look back and say, ‘Hey, we got to do this and this and go to nationals,’ that will be great.”
