Taryn Torgerson is part of the 2024 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame induction class. The class will be inducted on Sun., Jan. 28.

When Taryn Torgerson graduated from Wichita State, she gave coach Tom McCurdy a six-sided dice made of wood, over-sized and decorated with Shocker colors.

For Torgerson and McCurdy, rolling the dice is a teaching tool for the game of golf.

Torgerson grew up with the game, thanks to her father, and refined her skills as a Shocker. The gift of the dice is a tribute to one of the drills McCurdy used to bring out the best in a golfer who didn't always make the traveling team as a freshman.

"I was a bit one-dimensional when I got there, in terms of I wanted to hit this one shot and if I didn't, I got frustrated," Torgerson said. "I did a lot of really frustrating drills with him."

Torgerson, a member of the 2024 class of the Wichita State Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, worked at those drills all the way to two conference championships from 2014-18. "Rolling the dice" is one she remembers and uses now in her job as an assistant coach at Texas-San Antonio.

Each number on the dice represents a shot and the drill forces the golfer to hit draws or fades or low or high to learn how to deal with a variety of courses, weather, and situations. McCurdy uses the drill to teach players – after years of practicing their swing on the driving range – how to adapt during a round of golf.

"Freshman year is usually trying to teach them about how to play the game, and it usually goes against what their inherent beliefs are about golf, because they've been taught it's all mechanics," McCurdy said. "Learning how to control the movement of the ball is something that's never taught, but it's really important in college golf."

The dice drill diversified Torgerson's game.

"I did a lot of those drills," she said. "It was frustrating at first, because whatever it landed on, I couldn't do that shot on command. He kept pushing me and telling me that if I could do that there's no golf course I couldn't tackle."

Torgerson earned her way into the lineup consistently by the end of her freshman season in 2015 and finished tied for 21st at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. In NCAA play, she recorded WSU's second-highest score (234) to tie for 72nd. Those performances hinted at what was to come.

She won the MVC title in 2016 and the 2018 American Athletic Conference title in a dramatic playoff. She finished her career atop WSU's list for tournament wins (six), career stroke average (75.55) and season stroke average (73.26).

"She's the prototypical student-athlete every coach dreams about," McCurdy said. "Most coaches don't get them. Very hard worker. Absolutely coachable. She did it and committed."

Torgerson grew up following Brennan Torgerson, her father, to practice at the Hesston Golf Course. He coached boys golf at Hesston and is currently boys and girls golf coach at Buhler, with state titles to his name at both schools. She also learned from Grady Pauls, a former Shocker golfer who played for Brennan Torgerson at Hesston and coached under him at Buhler.

Watching Pauls and her father and soaking up their influence on young people steered her into coaching.

"We've been at the golf course since we could walk," Taryn Torgerson said. "I grew up watching (my father) and the impact he had on a lot of his players."

While she won the 2013 Class 4A title and 24 of 40 high school tournaments, Torgerson said she did not arrive at WSU ready to compete in NCAA Division I. She credits coaches for sticking with her when she struggled in qualifying rounds. If she asked questions, they answered. If she asked them to work with her an hour before practice, coaches agreed.

"They were always there," she said. "That was a big deal to me. They invested in me. The environment (McCurdy) created, the family-first culture. That was a big sell."

In return for that investment, McCurdy took on a golfer who helped the Shockers to two NCAA regional appearances. She also foreshadowed her coaching career with her leadership.

"She expected as much out of everyone else around her as she did herself," McCurdy said. "That made everybody else better."

Those habits started on the Hesston Golf Course, walking with her father, learning the sport and learning how to help others.