Andrea Gaston discusses her experiences in Aggieland, 2019 outlook

After 22 years as the head women's golf coach at the University of Southern California, Andrea Gaston underwent a change of scenery when she was hired as the Texas A&M women's head golf coach. She discusses that change and takes a look at the 2019 season with Lia Musgrave. 

On her transition to College Station from California:

“It’s been absolutely wonderful – obviously to have people that were excited to have me here and really wanted me here, from the interview when I came here in June to develop relationships with the people around here. The culture, the values, core values have been a big attraction for me and obviously a big lifestyle change from the traffic of LA. It really helped me see by being here the quality of life and also being able to offer student-athletes a much more balanced experience. Everything revolves around the campus and even the golf courses are right here, so I like the access to our facilities. It’s been tremendous. I feel like I was offered dinner and I got a gourmet meal out of this. It’s just been fantastic.”

On what drew her to Texas A&M after being offered the head coaching job:

“I came in on a whirlwind 24-hour trip. Just driving around and seeing all the facilities, I could see that there was a huge commitment made to all the sports. Everything I looked at has the ‘wow’ factor. Obviously it was a larger campus than what I was accustomed to. It’s kind of like you’re in a college town and everything revolves around looking at Kyle Field but at the same time, it’s still big enough to attract somebody like myself from the LA area. It’s been a little more personable experience with more time and quality relationships that I’ve been able to develop.” 

On the challenges of taking over a program as an experienced coach:

“A lot of the recruits – you don’t always know what they’re looking at or what they’re looking for. To me, it’s about developing relationships. I’ve always been a relationships coach. I wanna attract the best athletes here, and right now is the time that we really take advantage of the experience that I bring from USC into developing. USC was not as successful when I first came in there and we had to rebuild. This was just an exciting opportunity to rebuild this program. I hired a great assistant coach, Katerina Bruner, who played here 2010-14. She was an all-American. She experienced going to the NCAA championships. Both of us have the vision of what this program can do because we offer great facilities and great academic opportunity. I think it’s a great all-around experience, and we have to capitalize on what I have brought into Texas A&M and continue to attract some of the best athletes to come.” 

On what she’s learned about the girls on her roster:

“What I’ve appreciated most about the current players is that they’re so eager to learn. To have facilities that are convenient with a locker room – I’m not accustomed to that, but the fact that they show up there on their own to work on their games. They want to get better. They want to elevate. They know from the experiences that I’ve had that they need more competitive experience. My message to them is to compete as much as possible. They have the ability to be great players and to compete at the highest level. It’s one step at a time. We have to think about the process. It doesn’t happen overnight, but at the same time, I think we’ve been able to assess their abilities to certainly become players that can compete at the highest level. Hopefully we’ll continue to build on the foundation and then add some new players that can also bring a lot to the program.”

On her expectations for the team in the spring:

“I think we’ve been able to put together a really good spring program. I had to make a few changes in our overall competitive year from the fall to the spring. We’ve added a tournament in Tuscon in late March. I always try to get as many of our players to each tournament to give them the experience. We typically travel with 5 players, but I like to give the individuals a chance, so wherever we can do that, I certainly feel like that’s the experience we need to get. I was able to tell our team yesterday that we were going to take all 8 players to Hawaii in March. It’ll be during spring break, but I think we’ll use that time really well. All 8 will get to compete – 5 will be for the team and 3 individuals. Offering that opportunity is going to make a much more positive experience for them and give them the opportunity. They know I want them competing.”