Jake Narro

A familiar name of Southeastern joins Lions athletics as the newly named head coach of the Golf team. Jake Narro officially took over the job of Head Coach on August 31.

Narro has an extensive golfing resume that includes both time as a player and a coach, with his most recent position being the golf pro at the Country Club of Baton Rouge. Duties included in his most recent job were giving advice and coaching other golfers at the country club.

Narro’s career as a player has been filled with awards. After playing collegiate golf at the University of Southern Mississippi, Narro stuck to the south to continue playing as a professional. Narro was awarded the Gulf States Section Player of the Year in 2003 and 2012, while participating in six Gulf State Section Championships. Having had a background as a professional, Narro offers the athletes of the golf team another perspective from a coaching standpoint.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play in some really nice tournaments over the years and I think that experience of being nervous will allow me to help the young men of the team through that,” said Narro.

The Narro name may already ring a bell to some Southeastern students. Jake Narro’s wife, Doctor Amber Narro is an associate professor in the Communication department. One of Narro’s five children, Shayne, is also a student at the university.

Narro takes over a team that is captained by seniors Lawrence Allan and Eamon Bradley and includes several upperclassmen golfers. Freshmen Joris Etlin, Bailey Smith and William Meyers join Narro in being new additions to the team. With a balanced amount of seasoned players and new faces ready to make a name for themselves, Narro has set forth several goals he wishes to accomplish on the course of his first season as coach. 

“We’re building; progressing until we play in the conference championships in April,” said Narro. “We want to maintain a nice ranking. The team has always had a nice ranking in division one.”

Although rankings and conference titles are what the team practices towards day in and day out, Narro hopes for the members of the team to work just as hard in the classroom. 

“Another thing we have had a tremendous amount of success here in this program is our academics,” said Narro. “Our team grade point average is tremendous and we have two graduating seniors this year. Furthermore, we’ve had a tremendous amount of great young men come through this program.”

The Lions will participate in their second tournament of the season when they travel to Chicago, Illinois to play in the Windon Memorial tournament. Narro sees this tournament as an opportunity for the team to test themselves against a course they are not accustomed too. 

“Golf is obviously always kind of the same in the matter of you play 18 holes and things of that nature, but when you go to different parts of the country, it does change dramatically,” said Narro. “There is different grass and different terrain. Down here we’re flat, and when you play on a golf course with some elevation changes, that makes a difference.”

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