NCCGA is a student driven organization with hundreds of natural leaders who help make club golf a reality for thousands of students across the country. While all club presidents are worthy of recognition, John Janisse of Xavier has done an exceptionally good job transforming a dying club into the top club on Xavier's campus. Below are some details on how he did just that.
Q: Why were you interested in joining the club team?
I was one of those freshmen who e-mailed the president of the club before I even got to campus. I was interested in joining for the competitive environment and the opportunity to play as much golf as possible. I also thought it would be a good way to adjust to college and make friends.
Q: How did you go about getting people to know about the club?
Besides Club Golf, I am also the president of Xavier’s Marketing Club. Within this I came up with an idea to turn the club into a marketing consulting firm that works for the clubs on campus. A number of marketing majors signed up to be a part of this project and together we market a variety of clubs on campus. This serves club golf well as we can have teams of marketing majors sit down and try to analyze how to market the club and grow membership.
Q: Talk about the growth of the club from when you took it over to where it is now
The club was founded in 2007, but it kind of fell apart by the time I got to campus in fall of 2011. We had three members, very little funding from the school, and little organization. I put together a team of officers, wrote a constitution, and set to rebuilding the club. By the end of the year we had approximately twenty members, were back in good standing with the university, and even got sponsored by a sunglass company called Solarbat! The club sports council, made up of the officers of Xavier’s 26 club sports recognized us for our efforts by voting us “Most Improved Club of the Year,” which comes with a $500 check for the club, and I was fortunate enough to be voted “Person of the Year” for the program. Our budget was then increased substantially for this year.
Q: Who helped you get it to this point?
Xavier Club Golf absolutely did not succeed solely due to my efforts. We’ve had some great officers the last two years who played a crucial role; I really could not have done it without them. Another major help has been the Assistant Director of Recreational Sports for Xavier, and head of our club sports program, James Alexander. We meet with him every week and he always does a great job of keeping us on task. Finally, the club would not be what it is today without the members!
Q: How big a part of your college experience concerns dealing with the club golf team?
Its definitely been a big part of the last year. A lot of friendships can be built on the golf course and through all the work we do in the club. That’s one of the best parts about the game of golf.
Q: What is next for the Xavier Club Golf Team?
We are currently in the process of pursuing two goals. First, we would like to find a home course to be a consistent place to practice. Right now we just move around at different courses. Second, we want to move towards being more competitive. We built membership so that the club is established, but now we want to make sure we recruit the best golfers so we can compete with the schools in our region.
Q: What are your thoughts on NCCGA's Growth
I think its great! I’ve been very impressed with how the NCCGA officers have marketed and run the organization. We have a lot of potential and growth to look forward to in the next couple years.
