<p>Exactly one week ago today, the Center Grove boys golf team wrapped up its season.</p>
<p>But for Trojans head coach Jim Williams, the end of the season doesn’t mean his work is finished.</p>
<p>In many ways, it’s only beginning.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>Williams also is the head coach of Center Grove’s girls golf team. Players are working out and practicing now, and have been since the end of the school year.</p>
<p>They’ve just been doing it without Williams, who for the third straight year guided the boys to the IHSAA Boys Golf State Finals.</p>
<p>As has become the norm, the Trojans’ lengthy postseason runs have provide Williams with no coaching break.</p>
<p>“I could use an extra couple of weeks,” Williams said, laughing.</p>
<p>If Williams were to ever get an extra couple of weeks between the boys and girls seasons, he would spend much of it fishing. But he doesn’t get that chance.</p>
<p>He just wrapped up his third season as the boys head coach. The Trojans have gone to the state meet all three years.</p>
<p>Had they not, he might have had some time for fishing. But since they did, coaching golf has become a virtual nonstop occupation from the start of the boys season in April to the conclusion of the girls season in early October.</p>
<p>That’s because Williams has led the girls to the state finals two straight seasons, which also interrupts another of his favorite leisure activities: deer hunting.</p>
<p>The firearms season coincides with the girls state meet, so Williams and his assistant coach and hunting partner, Jeff Buckmaster, have missed the past two.</p>
<p>“We just look forward to going bowhunting,” Williams said.</p>
<p>If it sounds like Williams is complaining, he isn’t. Coaching golf is one of his passions, and his teams have the success to prove it.</p>
<p>During his 12 seasons with the girls team, the program has evolved into one of the state’s best.</p>
<p>Same for the boys under his three-year guidance.</p>
<p>The past two seasons, the Trojans have been ranked No. 1 heading into the boys state finals. They were runners-up in 2015 and finished third last week on a rain-soaked course at Prairie View Golf Club, the home course of eventual state champion Westfield.</p>
<p>“The season as a whole, you had to say it was successful,” Williams said. “We just ran into a buzzsaw. Westfield, that’s their stomping grounds. They know that place pretty well.</p>
<p>“Boy, they just executed and played great golf there, especially that first round.”</p>
<p>Now, Williams turns his attention to the girls season — something he would have done a few weeks ago had the boys season ended at the sectional.</p>
<p>His goal for the girls is the same as the boys: make another run at state.</p>
<p>Center Grove finished sixth last year and was 10th in 2014.</p>
<p>“Several of the (girls) came out to the (boys) state finals, so I got a chance to talk to them out there,” Williams said. “They’ve been texting with me and kind of keeping me updated as to what they’re doing.</p>
<p>“The whole goal is to get back to state again. They’re pushing themselves and working at it, so hopefully it will come to fruition.”</p>
<p>Center Grove lost four players, including No. 1 player Sydney Abbott, to graduation from last year’s team. But it returns four seniors, including standouts Shelby Schier and Hannah Wilson, along with four juniors.</p>
<p>Depth keyed the boys run to Prairie View, and Williams is confident it will do the same for the girls, whose season begins the first week of August.</p>
<p>So what if he doesn’t get a coaching break and might again miss firearms season?</p>
<p>“I tell you what, you start looking forward to it, that’s for sure,” Williams said of the golf seasons. “Our goal is to go back out to Prairie View.</p>
<p>“That’s the girls goal.”</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="The Williams File" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Name: Jim Williams</p>
<p>Coaches: Center Grove High School boys and girls varsity golf teams; Center Grove Middle School Central eighth-grade basketball</p>
<p>Teaches: English at Center Grove</p>
<p>Years coaching: 37</p>
<p>College: IUPUI (1995)</p>
<p>Family: Wife, Amy; children, Jackson and Molly</p>
<p>Favorite thing about coaching: Practices and strategy</p>
<p>Best golf score: 1 under par (“Years ago," he said.)</p>
<p>Favorite golfer: Jack Nicklaus</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
