On Oct. 10 and 11, two members of North’s girls golf team competed at the IHSA state competition in Decatur, Illinois. Out of 120 golfers from across the state, sophomore Kayla Beu placed 12th and sophomore Abigail Gizewicz placed 19th.
The first day of the state competition serves as a practice day for the players, and the following two days are each 18-hole tournaments. In order to advance to the second day of competition, it is required for players to reach a certain score the day before.
Steven Dodd, head coach of the girls varsity golf team, recognized a major improvement from the first day of play to the second.
“As a coach, I saw huge growth from day one to day two,” said Dodd. “Day one, they were both nervous, kind of uncertain of how they were playing and how they needed to execute. But day two, I was so impressed with the maturity of both of the golfers just to go out and stick to the plan that they had made.”
Both Beu and Gizewicz were proud of how they played at the state competition, as well as their performance and growth throughout the season.
“Golf is a game where you leave after the day, and you always find room for improvement,” said Gizewicz. “I think I’ve grown a lot, not only since my freshman year, but also since the beginning of the season.”
One of the biggest challenges in golf is that it is an individual sport. Unlike many other athletics, players are only able to control their own actions.
“Sometimes, you’re sort of challenged with playing against the people you’re playing rather than focusing on yourself. You can’t ever control what another player does in golf,” said Dodd. “It’s different in basketball, it’s different in football or soccer. You can prevent them from gaining possession. You can prevent them from executing certain tactics. But in golf, it’s literally just you and your ball.”
Another significant aspect of golf is having a positive mental attitude. Learning to remain patient and work through mistakes is an important part of excelling in the sport.
“I’m most proud of my ability to turn my day around,” said Beu. “If I’m not playing very well to start, I know that I have what it takes to produce a good score, and I feel like I really proved that over the season.”
Beu and Gizewicz put in a lot of effort to make it to the state competition by practicing before and during the golf season.
“I feel like the accumulation of just a lot of hard work over the summer and obviously through the high school season [was important],” said Beu. “You still have to show up every day, so I still went to the range, still got my work, and then obviously that mental side with my coaches was also a big piece of the preparation.”
Dodd was very proud of the state performance, and he hopes Beu and Gizewicz’s successes will motivate other members of the golf team.
“[I’m] incredibly proud of how they approached day two, having both been disappointed with their scores on day one, to come out and be so positive and to stick to their plan so rigorously for day two was outstanding,” said Dodd. “I hope [their performance] inspires the team to want to get better in the off-season and hopefully make state as a team next year.”
