Normal U-High’s Headrick wins 2025 CSM Boys Golf Coach of the Year
- Jonathan Michel
- 10 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Normal U-High boys golf has a reputation of success and Chris Headrick, Clutch Sports Media’s 2025 Boys Golf Coach of the Year, helped add another chapter into its story.
Headrick led the Pioneers to a Class 2A state title at Weibring Golf Club, where Normal U-High and Washington both finished with a 596, but the Pioneers won due to Dawson Freeman and Judah Dalton’s scores of 157 (15-over) in a fifth-score tiebreaker.
The state championship was the 11th in program history for the Pioneers, which is tied for second-most all-time in the IHSA, only behind Winnetka New Trier’s 12. It also marks the first such title for Headrick, who became Normal U-High’s boys golf head coach in 2023.
Headrick’s Pioneers boasted several qualities that helped them win many tournaments, such as a Class 2A regional on their home turf, the Central State Eight Conference championship, the 30-team Pekin Dragon Classic, the Bloomington/Normal Intercity tournament, the Ottawa Pirate Invitational, the Danville Viking Invitational, Edwardsville’s Dick Gerber Invitational, the Champaign Central Invitational, and the Raider/Redbird Classic.
Headrick’s Pioneers featured four CSM All-Area selections, including first-teamer Brody Allen, second-teamers Jack Quinn and Dawson Freeman and honorable mention Michael Ocheltree.
Hear from Headrick in our interview with him below, some responses have been minimally edited for clarity.
What have you been able to reflect on in the days since the season has ended?
“These guys are a blessing to be around. I think that more than anything, just thinking about how good of guys they are, how fun they are to be around, how much they love the sport [and] how easy they make it to coach the sport. I think that's kind of the thing that I keep coming back to.”
In your mind, what made the team so special this year?
“The depth that the guys brought and competition with each other. We kind of talk about at the beginning of the year, and really throughout the year, how [competition] can be a good thing if we let it be. We try to use competition with each other to make ourselves better and not in a negative way. Thinking about like what made these guys special is their ability to practice with each other to make each other better and I think with that, the depth of the team. [We had] seven guys all year that we used and we had another one or two on JV that easily could have filled in if we needed to.”
What’s your coaching background?
“My previous school was Litchfield High School and I was the assistant coach there for three years. Then I came to U-High as a counselor and this is my sixth year, I believe, and started coaching the golf team three years ago. I’ve coached baseball at my old school in Litchfield.”
What helps keep you going?
“For me, it comes to what I kind of mentioned earlier, like the guys that I get to be around makes it so enjoyable. At home, I’ve got a couple young kids and obviously my wife. With golf, you just miss so much. I think I added it up but we spent, as a team, 302 hours together over the last 10 weeks and so being away from your family for that long is super hard. But what makes it doable is my wife is a rock star, then also being around those guys, they make it easy. If we're going to spend that much time together, being around a group of kids is fun and enjoyable as they are, makes it 100 percent worth it.”
Aside from winning, what’s a fun memory with your players that you’ve had from this past season?
“I feel like there's quite a few. If I were to think of our most fun time together, we do an overnight trip down to Edwardsville. All the boys love that. We get out of school pretty early and go down that Friday and then obviously stay the night and play the next day. That probably comes to my mind and we go out and eat dinner and stuff while we're down there. They all enjoy that tournament just because it's something different.”
What’s a piece of coaching advice you’d give or one that’s been most useful for you?
“Specifically related to golf, my biggest piece of advice, and we talk about this all the time as a group, is while you're out there playing, not every shot is going to be a perfect shot. Not every round is going to be your best round and what makes golfers good is their ability to be resilient. We talked a lot this year about the bounce-back stat; when we make a bogey or worse on a hole, how good are we at standing up on the next tee box and forgetting about that hole? Can we bounce back and have a par or better on the next one? And what I love about it is it’s not just golf, it's life. When something bad happens or something doesn't go our way, how good are we at flushing that and moving on to the next thing? I think probably the biggest thing that we kind of talk about is to put things in the past.”