RAPID CITY - Rapid City Stevens head golf coach Phil Hunt just has to smile and shake his head when he sees what so many of his current and former players are doing these days. It seems like everywhere one looks a Raider is making news on a golf course. in 2006 and is currently playing at the University of Wyoming, played in his first U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship last month in Colorado. Phil's sister, Mikala, is still a key member of the Cowgirls' squad and 2008 Stevens graduate Paige Osterloo is headed to Kansas State to play golf in the fall. And who knows how many former Raiders are winning their club championships this summer. It's all enough to make Hunt just sit back and chuckle a bit.

With the Arrowhead Pro-Am coming to town this week there is one former Raider - 1997 grad Wil Collins - looking to win the tournament for the third time. Geoff Mead - a 2003 alum - just captured the South Dakota Golf Association's stroke play championship.

Mead's college teammate at South Dakota State, Tim Kalil, a 2005 Stevens grad, finished as the runner-up in the SDGA match play event to defending champion Tom Carlson. Phil Henzlik, who graduated

"They've all been playing very well," Hunt said. "They've all just managed to continue the success that they started in their younger years. They were all really talented players in high school and a little bigger stage has allowed them to go out and kind of let their skills shine."

In the case of Kalil and Mead, the shining has had something to do with playing together as they've helped SDSU navigate the waters of an NCAA Division I transition.

"Golf is really all about confidence," Kalil said. "I've just been a more confident player the past couple of years. A lot of that has to do with your attitude, you need to stay confident and positive, and Geoff Mead has really helped me with that. I don't know of anybody who has a better outlook on golf, and really just life in general, than him."

That confidence is evident in Mead's voice.

"I know that you can't win every tournament," Mead said. "But that's how I approach them now. I go out thinking that I'm going to win every tournament I play in."

The confidence Mead has in his game is something that has been long nurtured and found in plenty of players that have matriculated through Hunt's program. The emergence of a new star is pretty much a yearly event with the Raiders, and there are plenty of theories as to why.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the golf courses being on the west side of town," Hunt said. "It allows for a lot of the successful players that I've had to get a lot of practice in. Plus, I think the summer junior programs have had a lot to do with the success of players from all over the area. The junior golf in the Hills is very strong in my opinion."

Kalil, who moved to Rapid City from Pierre before his sophomore year of high school, said the school-year schedule has a lot to do with Stevens' success.

"We got out and played all over the state," Kalil said of the Raider program. "Yankton, Brookings, Mitchell and all of the local courses. I think Stevens probably plays the toughest high school schedule in the state. Plus, there's just a lot of good golf courses to play around the Hills. I think that probably helps get kids interested and playing."

Mead credits good old tradition with the cyclical talent at his alma mater.

"When I was growing up I wanted to be as good as Wil," Mead said. "It kind of goes in cycles. Stevens won six state titles in the 90s and I remember about five years before I graduated as probably the peak of the program. But the younger kids see that and look up to it and it makes them practice harder and try to get there, too."

And there are plenty of younger players waiting in the wings, ready to make their own history at Stevens. Brogan Pappel and Mac Young are two of the more promising young players in the state right now.

"We've got some good players coming up," Hunt said. "We should be all right."

It almost sounded as if he was stifling a chuckle as he said it.