Girls Golf Relies on Team Chemistry, Compatibility to Conclude Successful Season
The Glenbard West Varsity Girls Golf team has recently wrapped up their 2016 season, and many of the members owe this year’s successes to their crucial team chemistry on and off the course.
“I will be leaving a team and a group of girls who are the best people to be around. We get along so well and just have so much fun whenever we are all together,” said senior, Hannah Peterson. As Peterson mentioned, a handful of other seniors, including Alison Barry, Paige Lane, Maddie Richter and Tess Viola, will be departing from the Glenbard Girls golf program as well as from the team they have grown so close to.
This team compatibility is obviously present on the course, as the girls clearly consider their overall success as a team just as, if not more, important than their own individual accomplishments. Samantha Moody, a junior and three year varsity golf athlete, recalls, “I remember at Regionals I was having a tough round, and the only thing that was keeping me from really falling apart was how much I wanted the team as a whole to get through to sectionals.”
Moody’s same performance at Regionals would be later aided through the encouraging support of her teammate Hannah, who also expressed to have an appreciation for the team aspect of the sport. Peterson added, “I remember telling her ‘We did it.’ It was a team effort and wasn’t just on one person.”
Just as the girls recognized, the Glenbard West Girls Golf team had in fact succeeded, as they came in third at Regionals, which sent them off in stride towards their Sectionals competition.
In addition to the team’s refreshing reliance on one another to bring out their teammates’ best, junior Ann Bertane reveals that much of the team’s compatibility lies in the respect and admiration the girls hold for one another, saying, “I especially admire Sam Moody. She practices year round and is very talented.” Bertane finds that her appreciation for the talents of her teammates often forces her to deliver better scores. She adds, “There’s more of a feeling that you don’t want to let them down when you roll in with your score, it’s more pressure. I get most nervous for golf than any other sport for that reason.”
These pressures were running high among the competing Glenbard West golfers during their Sectionals competition, including Samantha Moody, Ann Bertane, Hannah Peterson, Paige Lane, Lily Stutelburg and Isabella Rosley. As Sectionals concluded, Samantha Moody’s performance would progress her on and allow her to travel to Decatur, Illinois for her State Championship. As the competition completed, Moody resulted in shooting two scores of 78 total strokes and finished in 30th place out of 120 athletes.
“Getting to go down [to] State this year was an awesome experience and I ended up shooting about 12 strokes less than I did my freshman year. It was a great way to round out the season,” Moody concluded. Moody has great anticipation for what next year’s season holds, similar to the many other athletes in the program.
“I’m looking forward to see some new talent come to Glenbard West next year, plus having girls coming back and being better than ever,” added the junior, Ann Bertane.
With the athletes displaying great eagerness, Glenbard West encourages you to show your support for the Glenbard West Girls Golf program, as next year soon approaches and holds the potential to achieve just as great of success as it did in the 2016 season.
