Power of Caring
  presented by CIGNA

LSU track coach Pat Henry is the only person to have led men's and women's teams in the same sport from the same school to Division I titles in the same year. Next spring, however, Arizona golf coach Rick LaRose could match his feat. LaRose's men's team is currently ranked first in the country. His women's team is second, despite the fact that since late September it has been without 1996 and '97 college player of the year Marisa Baena, who has been sidelined by a shoulder injury. Both teams have already won two tournaments.

The 51-year-old LaRose took over the men's program in 1978 and led the Wildcats to the NCAA title in '92. He became the women's coach just before Christmas in 1994, when Kim Haddow was hired away by Florida. With the program in disarray (no recruits had committed during the early signing period, and the team was ranked 31st), Arizona's athletic director, Jim Livengood, called LaRose into his office to ask for guidance. "The girls deserved somebody who cared," LaRose says. "So I offered to take over."

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LaRose's impact was immediate. Believing that the Lady Wildcats lacked focus and intensity, LaRose had them practice with the men's team. Despite the demands of two jobs, LaRose and his two assistants, Tom Brill and Amy Solfisburg, also found time that spring to land two highly regarded recruits: Baena, who is from Colombia, and Krissie Register of Roswell, Ga.

The two players quickly turned the team around. At the '95 NCAAs, the Lady Wildcats finished 12th. The following year, despite the distraction created by team member Brenna Cepelak's well-documented affair with Nick Faldo, Arizona won the NCAA team championship and Baena won the individual title. Last year they were third. In the meantime, the men's team has finished 14th, 10th and fifth in the last three NCAAs.

"The players are my kids," says LaRose, who is divorced and has no children. "I'll do anything for them, and they'll do anything for me. That's the secret of our success."

Issue date: December 8, 1997