Next year will be the first season in eight years that golf coach Joanie Pauls will not be coaching one of her children.

“I have been coaching Tanner since his freshman year (2014), but before that I coached his sister Lexi (2010-2013) and brother Lane (2011-2013),” Joanie said.

Tanner plans to continue his golf career in college at Ottawa University.

“He is going to play college golf next year, so I am excited to be able to just watch him as a parent. At tournaments, when I’m coaching the entire team, I only see him for a small part of his round,” Joanie said.

There are certain benefits of being coached by a parent.

“She has influenced me by helping with my mental attitude while playing golf. It is easier to talk to her after a bad hole than it would be for me to talk to another coach,” Tanner said.

Even though he won’t have his mom as a coach next year, Tanner has high hopes for his first season of college golf.

“It will be a lot different but I am excited to see what it will be like with a new coach,” Tanner said.

Coaching will be different for Joanie next year without having one of her children on the team.

“You try as a coach to keep the parent-child relationship out of coaching, but it is difficult. In some ways it will be easier to coach without Tanner on the team because I won’t have to worry about the balancing between coach and parent,” Joanie said. “Tanner works very hard on his golf game outside of season, so he requires less of my time during practice than some of the less experienced players. I know that I will miss seeing him at practice next year.”