Throughout the summer, athletes worked to prepare for the upcoming fall season. When fall sports are brought up, most people think about football, soccer and girls’ volleyball. However, a lesser known fall sport has been gaining popularity throughout the school⸺girls’ golf. Despite boys’ golf being around for quite some time, it wasn’t until 2021 that the first girls’ golf team was established.
When senior Jane Fox began her high school career, joining the golf team wasn’t an option. Today, thanks to the efforts of alums like Hannah Shaffer and Jenna Williams, she is a returning letter winner alongside Megan McKee, Gabrielle Filer and Clarissa Long.
“Well my freshman year was the first year that I had started playing golf, so I wasn’t really prepared to start a team. I know that a lot of my teammates, like Megan McKee and Clarissa Long, just played with the boys because they really wanted to have a team,” J. Fox said. “I am really happy to be on the golf team. I have a lot of fun with the girls on the team, and I have a lot of fun with the coaches. It’s just a really good time.”
Since its inception, the girls’ golf program has been steadily growing and getting better. According to the first and current girls’ golf head coach, Joel Gilbert, the girls’ willingness to “buy into the program” has been one of the crucial steps in making the team consistently improve throughout these past three seasons.
“I think the girls have practiced really hard, and I think they bought in. So buying in I think was very important for us. And then once they bought in, they slowly but surely have gotten better,” Gilbert said. “Each year we’ve gotten better. The first year I think we were two for six or two for seven. Second year we were like three and four. And right now we’re four and two. So, you can see we’ve constantly gotten better as the years go on.”
Sophomore Gabrielle Filer, who holds the school’s record for lowest score, attributes the betterment of the team to locating what the team’s weaknesses are and working towards improving them during the practices they have four times a week at Park Hills Golf Club.
“We’ve been working on what we need to work on. Compared to last year we kind of just played and didn’t work on what we really needed to,” Filer said. “I think we’ve gotten so much better than last year. I think we improved a ton, and I’m really proud of them [my team] and myself. I think we can make it to districts and I think we can win.”
Like Filer, the girl’s golf assistant coach, Thomas Fox, shares this goal.
“I would like to see us win a district championship,” T. Fox said. “But just as important, I would want every girl to be better by the time the season’s over.”
When the team competes next on Sept. 28, it will be in the PIAA District 6 Championship at the Windber Country Club in Cambria County. Each team will pick three girl’s scores to be counted. At the end of the match, the team with the lowest score of the three girls will be deemed the district champion. Last year, State College won with a score of 323 and advanced to the PIAA State Championship, but Gabrielle Filer took home the fourth place medal.
