Among the vast green landscape of Forest Akers West Golf Course, the head coach of the women’s golf team, Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, can be seen riding through in a golf cart checking up on her players.
Slobodnik-Stoll has been the head coach of the program for two decades, bringing the program to incredible heights during her time at MSU.
She’s accomplished a lot, both on the green and off of it, and her impact as a coach is seen on a number of current and former players. Liz Nagel, a former Spartan currently on tour with the LPGA, didn’t hesitate to explain the impact Slobodnik-Stoll had on her.
“Currently, I wouldn’t be where I am without Coach,” Nagel said. “She saw something in me that I may not have even seen in myself. She took a chance on me and brought me in on scholarship. (She) really spent a lot of time helping me grow as a golfer and as a young woman as she does with everybody that comes in.”
Spartan Roots
While Slobodnik-Stoll is in her 20th season as the head coach of the women’s golf team, she’s been around the program for much longer than that. She started off as just another golfer for MSU from 1990-94, eventually being named captain her final two years as an athlete.
After her playing days at MSU were over, she briefly competed professionally, only to come back to East Lansing as an assistant coach. Being back on campus, she worked alongside her former coach, Mary Fossum.
“Everything in my life, I feel like (Fossum) has given to me,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “In golf and the opportunity to play at Michigan State, the opportunity to be her assistant coach ... (She was) just an incredible mentor and an incredible person.”
Now in charge of everything, Slobodnik-Stoll is just the second head coach in the history of the MSU women’s golf program. Similar to what Fossum did years ago, Slobodnik-Stoll brought in a former Spartan, Caroline Powers, to help her as an assistant coach.
Powers, during her time as a player, was also extremely successful. She was a three-time All-American and All-Big Ten First Team selection. Now at Slobodnik-Stoll’s side as a coach, Powers said she’s been impressed by the way her former coach carries herself.
“She’s taken the program from what it was 20 years ago to a championship program, and a top one in the nation now,” Powers said. “It’s just a testament to she goes about things the right way and she works so hard on every different facet of it.”
Playing and Coaching Success
Looking at Slobodnik-Stoll’s many accomplishments and accolades in her career, they add up. She’s won five Big Ten Championship crowns to go along with her 17 NCAA Regional appearances.
Individually, Slobodnik-Stoll still golfs competitively as a player. She’s been prosperous, being named the Golf Association of Michigan, or GAM, Female Player of the Decade in 2010. She credits one of her past mentors – former University of Indiana head coach Sam Carmichael – for giving her the idea to still play competitively as a coach.
When Slobodnik-Stoll first got the job, Carmichael asked her if she still loved to play the game. Her response was of course she loved to play, she was very competitive when she first got the head coaching job. From there, she said she continued playing because of her mentor’s encouragement.
“I just always remember (Carmichael’s advice to keep playing),” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “In life it’s so easy to put what you love aside for your job, your family or whatever it is. So I just always remember that piece of advice.”
Slobodnik-Stoll said playing golf competitively has benefited her in other ways, too.
“(Playing golf) really was helpful in recruiting,” Slobodnik-Stoll said. “So I had the ability to possibly be paired up with or be in the same tournaments as recruits. So then I was like, ‘this is great.’”
Growing up in nearby DeWitt, Mich., Nagel said that she was always an MSU fan growing up but during the recruitment process she said she knew the type of norm the Spartans held themselves to because of Slobodnik-Stoll’s impact on the program.
“I knew that (MSU) made it to regionals every year and made it to nationals a lot of the years,” Nagel said. “I knew that there was a high standard there, and I also knew that I was going to be held to that expectation. I wanted to be a part of that, so I really wanted to make sure I made the travel team and I was one of those girls.”
In the actual eyes of the recruits, winning Big Ten championships goes a long way. Junior All-American Sarah Burnham said all the things the golf program has accomplished were also in the back of her mind when she was picking schools.
“(Winning Big Ten championships) is also one of the reasons I came here,” Burnham said. “Just the success of the golf program. That’s always a goal for us, individually too.”
Academics
On the green throughout her career, Slobodnik-Stoll has stood out among her peers, winning the Big Ten Coach of the Year award three separate times in 2001, 2007 and 2012. But the longstanding coach puts an emphasis on the academic performance of her team, with her players receiving 70 Academic All-Big Ten selections.
“She will ask you just as much how your golf game was or your family was, she would ask about your classes,” Nagel, a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, said. “It’s one of those unsaid things, she knows you’re going to work your hardest in the classroom and if not, you’re going to talk about it.”
Slobodnik-Stoll’s focus on academics has been seen directly in her player’s grades. For the past five years, the women’s golf team has taken home the Athletic Director’s Award. The trophy is given to the team with the highest cumulative team GPA in the MSU Athletics Department.
“Coach emphasizes student-athlete a lot,” Burnham said. “Just making sure we’re doing well in all of our classes is huge and that we get a lot of help that we need to succeed as well.”
As a new student coming in from Spain, freshman Paz Marfa Sans said she felt the impact of her coach’s guidance. She’s only been on campus for a month, but Marfa Sans said her transition has been made easier, especially in the classroom.
“She wants to take the best of us so she wants us to be the best,” Marfa Sans said. “She’s just trying to do everything that she can do to make us better, also in the golf course and the academics. So she’s like if we need help, she’s able to help us in any aspect.”
MSU Family
Winning and doing well in the classroom has been a big part of Slobodnik-Stoll’s appeal. But the way she makes her team and her players feel like family has been a huge factor throughout her coaching tenure.
During Burnham’s recruiting process, she said she never thought she would come to Michigan from her hometown in Minnesota. “One of the main reasons I actually came to MSU was because of (Slobodnik-Stoll) and how she recruited me,” Burnham said. “When I came here it felt like family, and with coach it just felt right. Just being at home almost, just the main thing.”
Looking back at her time being a Spartan, Powers said Slobodnik-Stoll had a motherly attitude to everything that she did.
“She’s like a second mom to me now,” Powers said. “She really cares about all the parts of our lives. She was honestly one of my biggest fans from the beginning, even when I didn’t believe in myself all the time.”
Slobodnik-Stoll said her most rewarding experience as coach was more about her players and the influence she has on them, not just the trophies and accomplishment she’s collected.
“I think the most rewarding (experience) is just every day having an opportunity to influence young people’s lives,” Slobodnik-Stoll said.
“Many of them come here as kids, they’re still young, impressionable, learning ... so that four, five year time period we have them is really a great time in their lives. They’re learning who they are, what they want to be, what they’re capable of doing, what their goals are going to be in life, and they’re just getting an awesome opportunity to be a student-athlete and just playing on the golf team. So that’s probably the most rewarding thing.”
