The ISU women’s golf team won three tournaments in the fall, only to spend the time between seasons toiling without an official head coach.

With a spring season quickly approaching, Iowa State hired former Purdue assistant Christie Hermes to take over the head position after longtime ISU coach Julie Manning left the team, accepting the assistant athletic director position at the University of Colorado.

“Christie was very successful as an athlete at Northwestern and as an assistant at Purdue,” Manning said.

“I encouraged her to apply for the position and certainly feel she is ready to head the program. I only wish we could have brought her in here back when she was a high school athlete in Illinois.”

Manning was able to lend knowledge to the search to fill her position and gives a full recommendation of Hermes, who came to Iowa State with a very impressive resume as both an athlete and coach.

With the encouragement of Manning, Iowa State hired Hermes on Feb. 16.

While at Northwestern, she was a three-time academic all-Big 10 honoree and captained the 2000 Wildcat team. Hermes is the Northwestern record holder for 18 and 54 holes and placed in the top ten at the 1999 Big 10 Championships. She also competed in the 2000 U.S. Women’s Amateur Tournament.

“My time at Northwestern as a player is most important because it is that aspect of myself that helps me relate to the team as a coach,” Hermes said.

“I understand what the girls are going through and have a better idea about how to help any of the girls in a situation than someone who might not have the experience as a player.”

Hermes accepted her first position in the coaching ranks at Purdue University and helped coach the team to a fourth-place finish in the 2002 NCAA Central Region and a second-place showing in the Big Ten Championships.

Purdue went to the NCAA Championships each year Hermes was on staff.

At Purdue, Hermes guided eight all-Big 10 players, five academic All-Americans and individual tournament champions and took the Boilermakers to multiple tournament team titles as well.

“I was lucky to be a part of a program that had several very good golfers, and there is no doubt that we can bring this program to the same level I had been in at Purdue,” Hermes said.

Successful as both an athlete and an assistant coach, Hermes said heading a program is a task that requires a great amount of responsibility, not to mention Manning’s very large shoes to fill.

“At Purdue, the position of assistant coach was actually very similar to being a head coach because we only had one head coach who looked over both the men’s and women’s program,” Hermes said. “I was very excited about coming to Iowa State, not only for their success in the fall but more importantly because I felt that the girls on this team really wanted to continue winning and to commit to do so in the future.”

Since Hermes has taken over the program, the Cyclones have finished in the top 10 of all four tournaments entered — but high expectations from the fall now rest primarily on the shoulders of the new coach.

Always optimistic, Hermes said she will continue to motivate her team to carry the consistent play of her seniors and growing momentum of the underclassmen.