The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • C6

TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 6C 6C Tuesday, April 25, 2006 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennessean.com SPORTS, GOLF GEORGE WALKER Sarah Jacobs reacts after missing a putt on the 11th green during the first round of the Franklin American Mortgage Championship at the Legends Club two years ago. JEANNE Waffle House server Marie Ellis talks with Vanderbilt Coach Tim and his wife Maggie. The Corbins regularly meet there to spend time together. because of Corbin, though he hates to hear it. He is a baseball nut who nine college baseball games last week (and watched all of them), and whose only hobbies are eating out and working out.

He gets to the office at 4:30 a.m. and leave until 9 p.m. a New Englander who loves the Boston Red Sox, his family, and, oddly, Waffle House. And he may just be the best thing to happen to Vanderbilt athletics in the last decade. Smoking the competition Tim Corbin was in the second grade.

He believe his eyes. Here he was, standing in the locker room inside Fenway Park. Fenway Park! He was already a huge Red Sox fan. When you live in New Hampshire, you really have a choice. A family friend was a major- league umpire who had just retired.

He wanted to give this little kid a lasting memory. Safe to say it happened. was the first time I saw a pro athlete Corbin recalled. left an indelible mark on me. It kind of hurt my image of what a major-league baseball player The little kid saw Carl Yas- trzemski and Bernie Carbo sucking down cigs.

It was enough to make a kid gag literally. But it deter Tiny Tim. He would go on to star in baseball, football and basketball at Kingswood High School in Wolfeboro, N.H., where he pitched, played infield, caught, played outside linebacker and point guard. He even played hockey on the neighborhood pond. It was fitting.

The Golden Boy grew up on Lake Winnipesaukee, where On Golden Pond was filmed. It all fun and games. Corbin and his little brother, Greg, worked long and hard hours in their automotive-parts store. Tim learned the value of a dollar as a young man, and he learned something else. knew from a young age that I would always work in he said.

He played college baseball at Ohio Wesleyan, then coached at Ohio State, Wofford, Presbyterian College and Clemson before nabbing the head-coaching gig at Vanderbilt. Coaching college kids was easy. The little girl was the tough part. A baseball family The little girl hated Tim Corbin. Told him every day.

For two years. She was 7 and her mother had just gone through a divorce. Now this guy? not easy to explain how the Corbin family came together. She was married, had two children, got divorced, and was a single mother. Tim and Maggie had known each other back in college, and they reunited through a friend when Corbin was an assistant coach at Clemson.

He immediately fell in love. So did she. two young daughters, Hannah and Molly, never gave him pause. Hannah was 4, too young to understand. Molly was 7, old enough to.

like Corbin said. told me that on an everyday basis for the first couple of years. I knew in the back of my mind it her fault and it my fault. She was upset with the situation, and it was easy for her to take it out on Molly is now 21 and a junior at South Carolina. Hannah attends Father Ryan and recently signed a tennis scholarship at Vanderbilt.

The family is tighter than a rusty nut. relationship we have now, I trade it for the Corbin said. anything that has helped me become a better coach been helping raise two stepdaughters. I probably am more proud of that than Ah, but the rub. They are old enough to date now.

Molly and Hannah are smart, athletic and cute. big bad dad handling it? know what guys are about because I tell them all of the horror stories, and pretty blunt with Corbin said with a laugh. tell them what goes on in the locker room. I think they are pretty picky, to be honest with you. Maggie has raised them to have confidence and to make strong Sweet, yes, but Corbin knows girls love baseball players.

forget, he was one back in the day. probably see our guys more as big brothers than they do as someone they would go out Corbin said, clearly uncomfortable. who knows? Stranger things have Note to the current Vanderbilt baseball players: even think about first base. Husband, wife and waffles A chicken and mushroom wrap. Hash browns.

Half-and-half iced tea. This is what Tim Corbin orders every day at 11 a.m. at a Waffle House off I-65. Not every other day. Every day He meets his wife here.

no baseball talk, no recruiting, no cell phone calls. This is their time. For some, this would take place in the family home, maybe after a long day of work. But this your typical family. Knowing how much a loss affects her husband, Maggie Corbin never bats an eye when her husband sleeps at the office.

In fact, it allows her to get some shuteye. sometimes easier for me to sleep in the office, get it off my chest, then go eat breakfast with my wife at Waffle House the next Corbin said. not like I could go home and lay in bed and go to sleep. That just happen. I would roll around and probably punch the pillow a few times and disrupt Office space Corbin has a new sofa in his office now, not the old raggedy one he used to crash on.

brown and leather and plush, and inside his new digs of recently unveiled baseball facility. Corbin pushed for the facility and got it, knowing how important new locker rooms and indoor hitting facilities would help recruiting. He was right. recruiting class coming into this season was rated No. 1 in the nation by Baseball America Corbin appeared uncomfortable in his new space last Tuesday after the MTSU game, and not just because his team lost.

The 42-inch flat-screen TV and fine furniture seem to fit him. To him, all about work and baseball, no matter how shiny and expensive his new surroundings are. still just a game to he said. no doubt grateful for where I am today. If I left tomorrow, there would be a line of 300 people at the door wanting this A door with a few dents in it, that is.

Reach Bryan Mullen at sean.com or 615-726-8947. Coach: priorities: wife, winning, Waffle House Graham looks back fondly at Schooldays Ex-Vandy star won event twice, now is seeking pro career By MIKE ORGAN StaffWriter Sarah Jacobs showed up a spunky wide-eyed 12-year old set to play in her first Tenness- ean Parks Schooldays Golf Tournament wearing ponytail French braids, no hat and a T-shirt with golf for printed across the front. Much has changed over the last 12 years. Jacobs, a Vanderbilt graduate now playing on the Futures Tour, is married and today goes by Sarah Graham. She wears her hair too long for French braids and always dons a hat to avoid the sunburn she got that day at Shelby Golf Course.

One thing that changed: Graham is still willing to earn her food, and whatever other daily necessities, by playing golf. She looks back on The Schooldays Tournament, her first organized competition, as the launching pad for her golf career. never forget that morning, how important it was to me, how nervous I said Graham, who turned 24 Monday. spent the night at my grandparents so be close to the course. This Schooldays, set for June 6-8 at the McCabe and Ted Rhodes courses, already has 156 players ages 12-17 for the field of 225 signed up.

The tournament, in its 82nd year, is the longest running in the state. love affair with golf, which intensified with each of the six Schooldays Tournaments in which she played, has never waned. love for the game was almost immediate when I first picked up a she said. when I started competing in tournaments that first summer, it got me hooked on the game that much Graham, who will play next week on a sponsor exception in the LPGA Franklin American Mortgage Championships at the Vanderbilt Legends Course, is not the first player The Schooldays sent on their way to a professional career. Lou Graham (no relation), who won the 1975 U.S.

Open on the PGA Tour, and Mason Rudolph, the 1959 PGA Rookie of the Year who went on to claim five Tour events, are a couple of others. Two other former Schooldays participants are Carl Smith and his brother Richard. Carl is grandfather and Richard is his brother. just a junior event, but the Nashville community is more involved in that tournament than any I ever played inside the said Graham, who attended Davidson Academy. just has that Graham etched her name into the history by winning the girls championship in 1997 and 1998.

She finished runner-up to Lacey Mitchell in 1999. a lot of kids who have opportunities to play in bigger, national tournaments at that same time where they could get a lot of national-ranking points, but kids will skip those tournaments to play in the said Johnny Warren, golf teacher. Warren has ties to the Schooldays other than Graham. Not only did he play in the tournament as a teenager, his son Paul played in it, and his daughter Lorie, now a freshman on golf team, won the girls championship. Another of students, Tyler Cassetty from Jackson County, was the boys champion in 2005.

love it; a great Warren said. is the history, the competitive factor, and then the match play. You get to play match play in a lot of stuff unless you go to the U.S. Junior, (but) they have After Graham left Vanderbilt as a member of the All-SEC First Team and on the All-America honorable mention list in 2004, she turned pro that summer. been on the Futures Tour ever since.

Graham, who has intentionally gained weight and says it has helped her increase the distance of her drives, will go through the LPGA Qualifying School again in September. She currently is ranked 12th on the Futures Tour with a 72.1 scoring average. times when, obviously, you have to be realistic and think, if this work out, if something happens, what would I do with my Graham said. thought about it, but right now where my mindset is, especially after I graduated from college, one of those things where probably die trying because I love it too much. told everybody the day I stop loving it is the day quit.

I even gotten close Schooldays entry form, 7C GOLF FROM PAGE 1C JEANNE After enjoying brunch with his wife, Vanderbilt Coach Tim Corbin is back on his phone. Vandy assistant Jackson gets Furman job Spent seven years with Commodores By BRYAN MULLEN StaffWriter Vanderbilt assistant basketball coach Jeff Jackson has been hired as the head coach at Furman. Jackson, who spent seven seasons with the Commodores, also served as the recruiting coordinator. very happy for Jeff and (his wife) Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. got a great guy, and really excited for Jeff and his family and the opportunity that he has to be a head coach again.

We will miss him, but go hire someone that has a chance to help us in key areas, and keep going only head-coaching experience prior to Furman came at New Hampshire from 1997-99, but his coaching resume is filled with impressive credentials. He was the recruiting coordinator at Stanford for four years. He was also named one of the top 25 recruiting coordinators in 2004 by Rivals.com after freshman class garnered national acclaim. Jackson served as an assistant coach at Cornell, his alma mater, as well as Southern Cal, St. Bonaventure and Colorado State.

is a signal moment in the history of Furman Furman Director of Athletics Dr. Gary Clark said. Jeff Jackson we have secured an accomplished recruiter and experienced floor coach who will be an outstanding leader of our basketball Jackson replaced Larry Davis, who accepted an associate-head- coaching position at Cincinnati on April 3. FILE Jeff Jackson, right, is leaving Vanderbilt Coach Kevin staff to become coach..