WARSAW – Tad Nieter has played a major role, as both a player and a coach, in a whole lot of success on the links by the WCHS boys’ golf program over the past decade.

Now, Nieter will turn his attention to the girls’ side of the sport.

Nieter, a 2007 WCHS graduate, was approved Monday night as the new girls’ golf coach at WCHS.

“I’m very thrilled for this opportunity and really excited about it,” said Nieter. “The boys and girls golf programs at Warsaw have had a strong tradition. For them to put their trust in me as the new girls’  coach means a lot to me.”

Nieter, who is a third grade teacher at the Washington STEM Academy in Warsaw,  is very familiar with the fortunes of WCHS golf. He helped coach Ben Barkey’s squad win a state championship in 2005 as a sophomore. Nieter shot a 162 for the two rounds at State, including a 77 on the final day as the Tigers rallied to win after being in third place after the first round.

Nieter, who is 25, then went on to play colleigately at Grace College. He has spent the last six years as an assistant coach to Barkey in the Warsaw boys’ program. The Tigers have won four sectional and three regional championships in the last six years, featuring such standouts as Tyler Ostrom and Jon Schram, and have been to State eight times in Barkey’s 12 years as coach.

“I just love the game and I love teaching the game,” said Nieter about why he applied for the head coaching position.

Nieter, who assumes his first head coaching position, replaces Ray Davis. The Tigers went 15-3 this past fall under interim head coach Davis and finished fourth in their own sectional. Standout Alexis Manwaring, one of two seniors, led the Tigers this past season.

Nieter has several goals in mind for his program, but the first is to increase the numbers. The Tigers had just six players on the team this past season in seniors Alexis Manwaring and Kristen Watson, juniors Morgan Fuentes and Aarshia Jain and sophomores Madi Graham and Page Desenberg.

“It has nothing to do with any of the coaches who were here before me, but we do need to increase the numbers,” Nieter said. “I want to get more girls exposed to the game and hopefully that leads to greater numbers and more competition on the team.

“There is definitely tons of potential here for the program to be very successful in the future. Who knows how long that will take, but we can take it to the next level. Just look at all the success of the other girls’ sports programs right now at WCHS.”

Nieter, who was married this past July to his wife Kara, has a much bigger goal for the girls who play in his program.

“One of my main goals is to get scholarships to college for girls who want to play at the next level,” said Nieter. “There are an abundant amount of scholarships available for girls to play in college.”