‘Fox’ returns to coaching at Southwestern

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It was 1959 when Ron “Fox” Clinton took his first head coaching job, and the veteran coach isn’t done yet. Clinton has coached a variety of sports over the years, but this spring, the 71-year-old will be taking his second stab at Southwestern golf coach. He also coached the Spartan golf team in 1977 and 1978. “I really like golf,” said Clinton. “Golf is a great game and hopefully we’ll be able to recruit and add some students to the student body. That’s the main reason we have athletics — to promote the presence of the school.” Clinton replaces former coach Loren Case who resigned from the position after last year. Even though Clinton said he’s only an 18 to 20 scratch golfer, but he hopes to teach the players what they need to do to be successful. “I’m your basic bogie golfer. I have some flaws, but the nice thing about flaws is you have areas to improve,” said Clinton. “One thing we can do better is course management and avoiding double-bogies. Course management is really important.” Clinton’s coaching experience runs deep. He’s coached in every position at Southwestern, except for volleyball — which he’s had an opportunity to do on three different occasions. His first job was high school baseball coach for Creston in 1959, and he’s also dabbled in football, basketball, softball and track at various levels. This also isn’t the first time Clinton has come back to a sport for the second time. His last major coaching job was Southwestern softball five years ago, which was also a second-time-around position for him. Southwestern athletic director Bill Krejci said he was glad to have Clinton back in the coaching ranks. “He’s been loyal to Southwestern in a lot of different ways,” said Krejci. “He really wanted to do it and if you want to do it, you’ll be good at it.” —————— Ben Frotscher can be reached at 782-2141, ext. 246 or bfrotscher@crestonnews.com