By Jolie Jackson
The Friendswood Varsity Girls’ Golf Team placed fifth at their state competition on May 6. Head coach Scott Smith and assistant coach Raymond Monahan led the team.
Mary Kerr, Mary Scheschuk, Margaret Kerr, Trinity Bosely, and Katherine Janda make up the 2023-2024 varsity girls’ team. This year marks the team as back-to-back state qualifiers for the first time in Friendswood’s history.
“We have a collection of talent right now that just happened to be here at Friendswood High School at the same time,” Coach Smith said. “We’ve had talented players in the past but we didn’t have the three or so to go along with them.”
In order to qualify for state, the girls had to place in the top two teams at the district competition and the top three teams at the regional level competition. For the first time since 1990, the team placed first at regionals.
“I think what made us place so well is that we became really good friends and we learned to feed off of eachother,” Mary Kerr said. “We pushed eachother to practice more and made it more fun in the process.”
The team works as individual players to score the least points possible. The four lowest scores are added to create the team’s final score.
“Each player is playing the hole by themself against other schools but at the end of the day, every shot counts,” Smith said.”You’re not just trying to shoot a score for yourself but to help your team.”
While the team worked to increase their golf skills throughout the season, they also worked on team chemistry. The team often met at restaurants to help build their relationships with each other.
“We have gotten to know each other so well to the point where we are all best friends,” Mary Scheschuk said. “I enjoy the team because of the culture and environment surrounded by amazing players and coaches who care about the program so much.”
With their state season over, the team will still participate in tournaments in the summer leading to next year. In the meantime, they will continue to get better.
“Although we did not play our absolute best at state, I am so happy about our team chemistry and our season this year,” Scheschuk said. “We all came together and worked hard to achieve our goals as a team, which we can work on even more for next year.”
