Success has become par for the course for the Heritage High School girls golf program. In just its fourth year fielding a team, the Lady Patriots have won four straight regular season Allen County Athletic Conference championships, and won the last three ACAC Tournament titles.
“The excitement that you know you’re playing where you can play is really awesome,” head coach Amanda Minchski tells ParkviewSportsMedicine.com. “All of the team is playing well right now. It’s all coming together.”
Four year ago, Minchski took the challenge of Heritage’s then-athletic director Cheri Gilbert’s to start girls golf. Minchski, who also coaches softball, started with those players to help drum up interest.
“Our first year, none of us had really picked up a golf club,” senior Abby Sheehan says. “But we kept grinding it out, and coming out here every day and putting in hard work. It’s really awesome to see what we’ve accomplished.”
Despite that wealth of experience and a young roster, the Lady Patriots have dedicated themselves to getting better through entering summer tournaments, lowering individual scores and, in turn, bettering the team.
Sheehan shot a school record 38 for 9 holes on August 22, only to be topped by sophomore Carley Rodenbeck’s 37 on September 5.
“You never know what you’re going to get with your swing every day,” Rodenbeck says. “I just try to focus every time, and try to improve on something that maybe I didn’t do so good on before.”
With the regular season now over, Heritage is ready to tee off the postseason. The Lady Patriots face stiff competition in the Norwell sectional Saturday morning at Timber Ridge Golf Club in Bluffton. The Top 3 teams will advance to regionals; as will the lowest 3 individual scores not advancing with a team.
Longterm, Minchski hopes the team’s success will encourage more girls to play golf at Heritage.
“All four years, each group has been special,” she adds. “Our biggest goal is getting kids to come out. We trust our kids, we trust their abilities. We know, as a staff, we can put together some decent golfers.”
Heritage is one of 26 high schools that partners with Parkview Sports Medicine for athletic training, nutrition, sports performance training, athletic rehabilitation and other sports medicine services. Learn more at ParkviewSportsMedicine.com.