News & Updates

New Central Arkansas women’s golf head coach, Conway native Summar Roachell discusses first fall as a head coach, return home, goals for future

Roachell, a former ASGA player, originally from Conway, took over the program in June and without any of her own recruits, the Bears posted their lowest tournament score in team history and won their final fall event.

By Chris Werner
USGA P.J. Boatwright Intern

December 19, 2023


Summar Roachell has been where her players are, and the new Central Arkansas women’s golf coach has used that knowledge and experience to get the best out of her players.

Roachell, a former ASGA standout, Arkansas Razorback, and Symetra Tour professional, took over the reins at UCA in June after former head coach Natasha Vincent stepped away to focus on her family, according to a UCA Athletics press release.

In her first fall as a college head coach — after serving as the assistant coach at Central Florida in 2022-23 — the Bears were impressive on the course.

The squad won its last of five fall tournaments at The Judson on Halloween, posting a team score of 11-over-par 875, but the Bears’ best showing score-wise came a week prior at the Diamante Intercollegiate in Hot Springs Village.

Central Arkansas’ tally of 14-under-par 850 was good for third place on the team leaderboard but was the best 54-hole team score in team history.

Roachell attributes her early success to her efforts to get the best out of each of her players by getting to know them on a personal level.

“I think the most important thing is relationships,” Roachell said in an interview with the ASGA. “I think you have to build a level of trust with the players and you have to build those relationships to be able to push them to higher levels than where they are and what they truly believe they can do and accomplish.

“Kids these days need a lot of love,” Roachell continued. “They need to be told when they're doing things really well, and they also need to be told when things are struggling, what they need to fix and how to do that.”

Roachell said her time as a college player and then a tour pro — playing her final season in 2019 — has been a vital piece of how she works with her players.

“I think having that experience of being [a college and professional player] and being able to share those moments with them, they're really good, they're really tough. But also being able to do things, you know, train the way we do now, that will really prepare them. I felt prepared when I went out there from college, I felt like I was ready for anything I would face. And so now when I'm coaching my girls, I really want to prepare them for that.”

After her touring career came to an end, Roachell spent one season at Blessings Golf Club near Fayetteville.

Then, she headed to Orlando in June 2022 and learned valuable lessons as the UCF assistant coach under head coach Emily Marron. The Knights reached the fourth straight NCAA Regional while Roachell was there.

“She took a chance on me when I didn't have much coaching experience,” Roachell said of Marron. “She really took me under her wing. All the responsibilities that she gave me, prepared me to be a head coach sooner. She wanted me to be involved in a lot of decisions, a lot of behind-the-scenes things that some assistant coaches don't get to see, which makes it harder to transition into being a head coach.”

Then in the late spring of this calendar year, Roachell got a phone call from Vincent, who told her she was going to recommend her to take over the UCA program. And on June 16 Roachell was named the next head coach.

“To have a school and an athletic director and a program who believe in me at such a young age and to put their faith and their word behind me really means a lot,” Roachell said. “...There's not a lot of Division I head coaching job opportunities, much less coming in your hometown, where you grew up less than five minutes from the university.”

“I believe that everything happens for a reason,” Roachell added. “We're put into these certain moments to have these experiences and learnings. “It's been absolutely amazing to be able to come home and build the program into something that I can be proud of my assistant [fellow Conway native Mary Michael Witherell] can be proud of, and ultimately, that our community can be really proud of.”

Roachell said her players this season are “incredible,” and the golfers feel the same way about their new coach.

Sophomore and 2023 Arkansas Women’s Amateur Champion Madison Holmes, who tallied four top-10 finishes this fall, including a runner-up performance at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic, said Roachell’s experience and positive demeanor have been important to the team’s success.

“In a short amount of time, coach Roachell has come in and made a difference on this team,” Holmes told the ASGA. “Freshly out of competitive golf herself, she brings a lot of playing experience and knowledge to all of us and you can see that in our game.

“She pushes us to work hard on the course, in the gym, and in the classroom, as she knows that is what it takes to reach success. Coach’s positive energy is nice to be around on and off the course and I have really enjoyed our first semester together.”

Roachell pushes herself, too. With a lifelong learner’s mindset, she is constantly trying to become a better coach. She said she stays in contact with old coaches and studies current head coaches across the world of sports.

She mentioned Jeremy Bernard, a soccer coach she had growing up, Janet Taylor, a legendary Conway High School multi-sport coach who is set to be inducted into the Arkansas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2024, Arkansas women’s golf coach Shauna Taylor, Emma Hayes, the coach of Chelsea’s women’s soccer team, Becky Hammond of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, and Kara Lawson, the head coach of Duke women’s basketball.

“They get the most out of their players,” Roachell said of her coaching idols. “Yes, they have some of the top players in the world, but they're able to elevate them even higher, they're able to take programs that maybe struggled in the past, now they're winning championships and are powerhouses, they've all competed at a really high level, and they've all coached at a really high level and continue to win while also developing really incredible people.”

“That's something that I want to do in my program, as well,” Roachell continued. “The winning is amazing and awesome, but I want to create really well-rounded individuals that are prepared for anything that they could face.”

Like the coaches she looks up to, Roachell led her team to victory in the fall, and in the spring, the goal is to do that again, and to do something UCA women’s golf has never done before.

“When I look at the spring season, I think you could ask every single person on our team and everyone has conference championship circled,” Roachell said. “Everything that we're doing is working towards bringing a conference championship back to UCA. With that, we'd also get into regionals. This team has never made it to regionals, and from that point, anything can happen.”

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