Ian Havill has stepped down as Bainbridge High School’s girls golf coach after 13 seasons.

Changing the season from fall to spring was a major reason.

“Golf moving from the fall season to the spring with my younger daughter playing college sports, my plan was to coach in the fall and see all her games in the spring,” Havill said.

The Spartans held a 122-8-1 record under Havill with the last loss coming three years ago.

Havill’s former team members were happy for him but disappointed he was leaving.

Taylor Tye played for Havill from 2014-17, finishing as high as 37th at state as a junior. She was surprised to hear the news about Havill. “My first question was why because I see how much joy it brings him and how much players have benefitted from having him as a coach,” Tye said. “I have no doubt that he will find other ways to be involved or be a mentor for other people.”

Elise Walters, a standout on this year’s team, said, “It was sad for the whole team to hear the news because he has been influential as a coach and in our lives.”

Havill had a successful reign at BHS, qualifying 37 girls for state, placing twice as a team at state, winning a total of six Metro and Olympic league titles. “As far as golf goes, we had a strong team almost every year,” Havill said. “We had teams that weren’t as strong but the thing I’m proud about is our team was honest. That wasn’t always the case, and our program was respected by others.”

Havill’s main goal was building character. “I asked the team why we practiced in a hailstorm,” Havill said. “The boys and everyone on the course left. Things like that were so they wouldn’t be scared. At the state tournament, hundreds of people are watching and hit mostly great shots. You can’t do that with doubt.”

Havill’s two daughters, Kiera and Kendall, played for the Spartans, and both qualified for state. Still, he sacrificed a lot of family time to coach hundreds of girls who went through the program in the last 13 years.

“He was very involved in not only his kids’ sports but the other athletes they played with,” Tye said. “He had a way of teaching the boring stuff and made it very fun,” Tye said. “Outside of practices he implemented team bonding like movie nights and stuff like that.”

Now that Havill has stepped down, he will be able to catch Kendall’s senior year of lacrosse at Colorado College. “Now we got the van, and we will enjoy the road trips,” Havill said. “I like coaching but this spring block is Kendall’s senior year. That’s more important.”

When Kendall graduates, Havill will look to volunteer for the Spartans to keep pushing girls golf on BI. “I care about girls sports on the island and why I got into coaching in the first place with my two daughters,” Havill said. I want to help improve the awareness no matter what age or sport I coach.”

Walters and Havill shared a favorite memory of theirs.

“Our tradition is I’m going to carry the bags of the seniors of the last hole of their last home match,” the coach said. “We are playing Seattle Prep for the battle of unbeaten, and Elise is a freshman.”

Walters said, “The match was really close, and I was the last scoring player as a freshman and didn’t know my course strategy.”

Havill said, “Anna Kozlosky asked of him: ‘Where are you? Kendall is about to tee off.’”

“I have walked all these bags for years, and it’s my daughter’s turn. I had the question, ‘What would Kendall want me to do?’”

Walters said, “He stuck back with me and put the team first and wasn’t able to carry his daughter’s bag.”

Instead, Kozlosky carried Kendall’s bag, and Havill began to tear up as he saw his daughter walk the course a final time, leading the Spartans to a league title.

Walters said, “I know he wanted to do that but it was a very selfless thing to help the team, and I appreciated that.”