When it comes to the Stephen F. Austin High School Girls’ Golf team, both Varsity and Junior Varsity have proven time and time again to be hard-working as they showcase their skills on the green. Whether it’s time working in the weight room or hours of practicing, the team has worked efficiently by training every day. The team’s work ethics have been an instrumental building block for a successful team, along with their grit and commitment. These virtues have contributed to the team’s progress this year. Many girls have shown improvement in the sport including Caroline Cooper and Baker Morris. 

Sophomore Caroline Cooper is a team captain for the Girls’ Varsity Golf team. Her devotion to the team has shown through her incredible performance and the importance of the sport by her putting, chipping, and hitting in the range. Caroline shows consistent grit by showing up to practice no matter the difficulty. Caroline says, “This is my second year on the team and so far it has been amazing.” The team’s practices are long and hard but they help the girls improve incredibly. She states that “practices are three to four times a week with 2.5 hours of practice” She also commented, “Our coach, Coach Norris, does an excellent job at coming up with ways to make sure that our practice flows and that we all feel like we are improving.” Caroline said, “My favorite thing about practicing is being able to take what I need to work on from tournaments and being able to apply that at practice. I feel like I took something away from each tournament which is exuberating.”

Junior Baker Morris on Girls’ Varsity Golf said, “A stand-out moment of the golf season was Caroline Cooper breaking a 90 in the Corpus Christi Tournament.” Baker remarked, “We have practice in the weight room twice a week to increase our mobility along with practice starting at three and ending most days at 5:30. Playing nine holes a day has helped strengthen the team severely.” Baker said, “The relationship of the team is very diverse, but they all get along and support each other on and off the golf course.”

A major player in the golf team’s success has been their coach, Mr. Thomas Norris, who helps players develop skills on and off the green. According to Caroline, “Coach Norris has shaped our team big time, whether it’s through how close we are as teammates or how well we do in tournaments. His dedication has definitely shown itself. Every girl on the team has shot better scores since he became our head coach, and I can see a difference in the unity of our team since he took over. He’s a great coach and has nothing but great intentions for our team and has big goals for the future.”  

Some of the most outstanding moments of the team are the ways they are supportive of one another. This is seen through the ways their coach plans hangouts for the team to talk over strategies and hangout. The hangouts are important to building the team because they get to learn from one another and find ways to improve for next time. Baker states, “We all get along, it’s a very diverse team but everyone is super sweet and very light-hearted, Coach Norris encourages us as a team to support each other on and off the golf course so we are all friends.” Baker is also attentive to how the beginning tournaments shaped the way the team learned from their mistakes. Baker says “The first tournament we ever played together as an entire team at Lions at the beginning of the year was a super fun and memorable moment for our team, we got to see where we were score-wise at the beginning of the year and then set goals for our score for later in the year.” These small improvements of how the team plays has shown large improvement in the team as a whole.

Whether there’s small or large improvements,  as a whole has improved and the coach and teammates are extremely proud of their excellence this year. Despite facing challenges, these struggles only led to the team’s growth. One struggle that Baker recalls was “the switch from a relaxed coach last year to a very strict coach this year.” The team has done so well and is looking forward to the next golf season. They’re practice and grit have led to a great year, and they’re excited for the incoming freshman who will bolster the team in the future.