When Chad Salay first came to the Prescott girls golf program, it wasn’t even a shadow of what it would become. That was eight years ago.

“My first year as head coach here was definitely the hardest. I'd coached boys golf in Minnesota for a number of years, so it's not like I was a brand new coach, but whenever you take over a new program, there's just a lot of building that needs to happen,” Salay said. “We were last in the conference that year, and we were shooting scores that are just nowhere near where we're at now.”

Salay relates that he looks back fondly on those years. From taking over just three weeks before the season began and not knowing almost any of the players, to having the bare minimum of five girls on the team so they could play in events, to the dedication that those first groups of girls had to their team and to improving their game.

Part of the struggles he faced at the beginning was that they just didn’t have enough time with the girls to allow them to make the strides that they needed to truly compete because most of them were already juniors and seniors.

“After the first couple years, we got some talent coming in as freshmen and started to accomplish things, and it started to build,” Salay said. “Winning state isn't just like, well suddenly we’re state champions. It was the building blocks, and we had a lot of special moments like that throughout the years to get to where we are.”

Salay has been coaching since 2008. Before coming to Prescott, he spent many years as the head coach for boys golf in Cottage Grove. Then, in 2015, he applied for the head coaching position here, although he says it was never his intention to do so.

“Honestly, at the time, I had zero interest. So, it was kind of funny when my assistant coach Darren, who was my assistant over at Park as well, kind of mentioned it to me because he also lives in the community. He said, ‘Hey, you know, you should go for that Prescott job, that'd be kind of cool. You'd be able to coach Ava, and I'd help you. It’d be fun, we’d get to kind of help out the community in a way and take over that program,’” Salay said. “So, for whatever reason, I just threw my hat in the ring. I ended up getting the position, and from day one of practice, I loved it. It was just a different vibe with the girls compared to the boys. So yeah, it's been awesome.”

Fast forward eight years and three consecutive state championships later, and Salay is receiving the Golf Coaches Association of Wisconsin award for coach of the year for the second time in a row.

“It wasn’t something that was on my radar to accomplish, but it's voted on by all the coaches in the state, so it's kind of a cool honor to know that they're recognizing the hard work that my whole staff, the girls and even the parents of players in our program put in,” Salay said. “I mean, it's a team effort when you win an award like that, it's not just me, it’s everyone that's involved.”

It isn’t just the coaches that have taken notice either, Salay says he’s been contacted by two universities looking to hire him as the assistant coach for their program. However, it’s not something that he’s interested in at this time.

“I've been offered a couple of positions up at that level, and I just tell the person that it's just not the right time. I still have so many girls, even from the youth age, that we have in camps that I can't wait to have in our program,” Salay said. “I definitely wouldn't rule it out someday, but just not anytime soon. There's just so much unfinished business, and I love coaching here. I love the community, I love everything about it. So yeah, not anytime soon, but definitely in the future I could see something.”

The most immediate part of that unfinished business is what the rule changes that the WIAA has made for next year mean for their team. Under the new system, if a team, like Prescott, performs extraordinarily well for an extended period of time, they get bumped up to Division 1. Considering that there are only two divisions for golf, that would be the equivalent of Prescott’s football team getting bumped up two or three divisions.

“We’re going to appeal it, and that appeal happens in October,” Salay said. “If I had to guess, I think we will be unsuccessful, but this is such a new thing that we don't even know how these appeals go. I think we have a good appeal though because we're not even close to the population threshold of the schools in D1. I mean, we can compete at that level, we’ve already shown that, but it just doesn't make sense for us to be in a division with those programs.”

The rule was created to tackle a competitive balance problem that is the result of private schools recruiting players, so Prescott really isn’t the target. However, the Cardinals won’t know for months yet what the answer is.

For now, Salay and the Prescott girls golf team are just enjoying another successful season and are looking forward to competing for a fourth consecutive state championship. Truly, this is an award well earned by the entire program.

“It's just a nice honor I guess more than anything. To me, it's nice because it highlights our program and our girls and everybody in Prescott. Just getting the kind words from people all over the state, it's kind of cool and gives Prescott, you know, a little bit more prestige I guess,” Salay said. “It's also kind of fun to see that our Prescott golf brand is growing, and people are talking. Not that people haven't taken notice before, but it’s just another rung on the ladder. And it's fun to see that we're in, like, the Madison news, you know? Little Prescott on the other side of the state. I love seeing that.”