The University of Mississippi Athletics
The Last Go-Around
10/30/2007 | Men's Golf
By Kim Ling
Associate Director, Athletics Media Relations
One comes from a halfway across the country. The other comes from just up the road. One grew up an Ole Miss fan, the other didn't know much about the school until he came for a visit. Together they make up the senior class of the Ole Miss men's golf team.
David Marino hails from a small town (Cumberland) in Northern Rhode Island. Four years ago, he was playing in an AJGA golf tournament in Alabama, when former head coach Woody Cowart noticed him.
"The Ole Miss coach followed me for a few holes, Marino said. "He started recruiting me, and then I came for an official visit during the homecoming game that year. I saw the Grove and how everything was on game day and all the pretty girls. I was hooked."
Marino was looking for a place where golf could be played almost year round. After also considering Old Dominion, Wichita State and Central Florida, ultimately he decided on Ole Miss.
"One of the biggest reasons I came down here was because of the weather. It's a lot milder."
Having lived his entire life in Rhode Island, Marino admitted that it took awhile to adjust to a different culture in a new place.
"There are some differences," he said. "It was really difficult at first, because it was a culture shock. I didn't know anybody when I first got here. I was completely alone. Everybody knew a bunch of people from high school. It seems like a lot of people from the same high school come here. It was really hard to adjust at first, but I've learned to love it."
Kyle Ellis, a native of Senatobia, grew up coming to Rebel football games as a kid, so when it came time to choose a school to continue his golf career and education, there was never a doubt where he would go.
"My dad has always liked Ole Miss and even my grandfather liked them," he said. I grew up an Ole Miss fan. My dad is a highway patrolman, so we used to get free tickets to the games. We would come over here all the time. We were here when Chucky Mullins got hurt. I remember that game, even though I was little at the time."
Marino arrived at the same time as head coach Ernest Ross, in the fall of 2004, while Ellis had been on campus a year. Both said they believe the program is headed in the right direction under Ross, who in his first tenure guided the Rebels to the 1984 SEC Championship.
"Coach has done a great deal," Marino said. "He's been very successful in making the program better. When he came here, it was my first year as well. There were 23 people on the team, and it was chaos. Now it's a lot more organized. He's very organized, and he's doing a great job with recruiting. I really like how they (Ross and assistant coach Jonathan Dismuke) are dealing with us. They are doing a wonderful job."
After a couple of years of coming close, Marino and the Rebels experienced the thrill of postseason play last year. Marino helped lead the Rebels to a fourth place finish in the SEC Championships and a spot in the NCAA East Regional. It marked the program's highest finish in the SECs in 19 years and the team's first postseason appearance since 2001. Marino, who earned a top 20 finish at the Shoal Creek Invitational earlier this season, thinks this year's team may even be better.
"Will (Roebuck) and I are the only ones who played in the regionals last year, but we are pretty experienced," he said. "Kyle has a lot of experience. We have a couple of new guys on the team, including Jesse (Speirs), and he is really experienced. I believe we have more experience than last year. We just need to stay patient and not put too much pressure on ourselves. We need to focus not so much on making it to nationals, but on hitting the next shot. I think if we can do that as a whole, we can go places as a team."
Ellis redshirted last year and says though it was hard to miss out on NCAAs, he found ways to help the team.
"I think I helped pushed them to another level, because I played really well last year (on my own)," Ellis said. "I missed it a lot, but I think this year we have a much better team. I am really looking forward to the rest of the year. I think we have a chance to make it really deep into NCAAs. We just need to play well."
Both Marino and Ellis hope to lead the team to greater heights, while also achieving some personal milestones to cap their careers.
"I really want to win a golf tournament," Marino said. "I want to earn some top 10 finishes and have some good finishes before I end college. I want to feel like I've met my potential at the end of it all."
Ellis noted "I want to be an All-American. That's why I sat out last year. I worked hard to come back and prepare for my last year. I just need to play well. It's still early in the season, and there is still time to improve."
This past summer, Ellis did a lot to prepare for his senior campaign, most notably, qualifying for the U.S. Amateur and advancing to the second round of match play.
"It was wonderful," Ellis said, of playing at the famed Olympic Club. "The best amateurs in the country were there. The elite college players were there. I've always known I can play with those guys, but to know that I really can now is great. I can go out to tournaments and realize that I can win it just like the top guys can. It's just a confidence thing. That's all golf is. When you play with those guys, the sky is the limit."
They may be from different parts of the country, but Marino and Ellis have at least one thing in common, a desire to lead the Ole Miss men's golf team back to the top, and to know they left it all out there.
