A new sport has started at Amherst High School — Girls Golf. And senior Sam Nooyen has some things to say about it. The head coach, Sharon Beilke, also explained how it all came together, which I’ll get to in a bit.
For her part, senior Sam Nooyen was happy to join.
“I wanted to try something new,” Sam said. “And I wanted to learn to golf.”
The team only had six members for their first year — Sam plus junior Addison Allen, sophomore Kinzee Martin, and freshmen Kylie Hoffman and Lydia Stokes — but it’s a start. According to Sam, the team is looking for more people for next fall.
“We want girls who are excited to learn and have a great attitude,” Sam explained.
So what was the best part of the season? For Sam, she enjoyed the van rides and the time with her teammates and the coach, as well as the time spent together at practice. Her favorite meet was their home meet at Glacier Wood Golf Course in Iola.
Coach Beilke had more to add about how Girls Golf became a thing.
“I wanted to start a Girls Golf team for several reasons,” Coach Beilke said. “The first nagging reason was because my daughter played golf in high school a couple of years ago and was on the Boys team. She really wanted to play with and compete against other girls. I told her that if I was able to help, I would put effort into starting a team and here I am.
“It all came together after I volunteered for a season for the Boys team and saw what that might be like,” Coach Beilke explained. She was encouraged by the boys coach, Kevin Vander Laan, and he was patient with all of her questions. “The rest was up to Adam Miller, the Athletic Director. He worked behind the scenes to get things approved by the school board and WIAA.”
So what was the coach’s favorite part about this first season?
“Seeing the team at practice every day,” she said. “It was so fun to see these ladies get better every week. If my golfers are reading this, they know what ‘GOOD SHOT? ARM IN THE AIR’ means. I tried to teach them to celebrate every good shot. It was so fun.
“The hardest part of being the coach was having a small team and not having enough golfers to play as a team. You need four individual scores added together for a team score, and you can take five players and take the best four. We weren’t able to do that due to schedule conflicts. We need more players so at any given time we would have enough to take a team.”
The coach agreed with Sam that her favorite course was Glacier Wood.
“Yes, I know, that’s our home course. Well, it’s the best, with the nicest fairways and greens.” But she does want to give a shout out to Hortonville’s Grand View Golf Club. “They had a fun event, so that is a good memory as well.”
The furthest meet the Girls team traveled to was Adams Friendship, which is about an hour away, but they got rained out.
“That really made it feel like a long commute,” Coach Beilke admitted.
Coach added, “This was my first year as a golf coach. I had several girls on the team that were trying golf for the first time. It was a perfect fit. We laughed and learned together.
“Golf is hard. We learned to celebrate every good shot and in time many of the girls would have several good shots in a row. That meant lots of smiles and celebration. It was a winning season because of that.”
