For the first time in school and conference history, a high school girls golf team will be playing in the state tournament and that will be the team pictured above, the West Union Lady Dragons. (Photo provided)

For the first time in school and conference history, a high school girls golf team will be playing in the state tournament and that will be the team pictured above, the West Union Lady Dragons. (Photo provided)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Sports history came to West Union High School via the efforts of the Lady Dragons’ golf team. After finishing as runner-ups in the Division II district tournament at Crown Hill Golf Club on October 1, the Lady Dragons will become the first girls team in school history and the first girls team in the history of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference to make an appearance in the OHSAA State Golf Tournament, held at the Firestone Country Club in Akron.

In the 18-hole district tournament, the West Union girls placed second behind district champion Westfall but earned their state berth as the top two district teams in Division II make the state trip. The day was not without its nerve-wracking moments, however, as the Lady Dragons waited hours for the Minford team to finish their rounds before realizing that they were in fact state bound. For West Union head coach Marci Nehus, the day had extra special meaning as she is the daughter of longtime boys golf coach at WUHS, Carl Schneider, and now she will be taking a team to state like he has done numerous times.

“I think once we get up there in Akron, it will sink in,” said Coach Nehus. “I’m just so pleased with the great effort our girls put in at the district tournament, Once the nerves settled in, they relaxed and played really well. My Dad has been a great role model and I’ve been able to see what it takes to get to this level. He wasn’t actually at the district, but he called me 28 times during the day with his advice. He was back at the school doing the math.”

With the live scoring on an app now, we spent nearly the entire round refreshing our screens. Once we finished we had to wait hours for the final results since we were in the first group of teams to complete our rounds. One girls from Minford’s app wasn’t working so that made it a little more stressful.”

“I just want the girls to go up there and enjoy the experience,” added Coach Nehus. “For every girl, it can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I just hope they soak it all in and got out and have fun. We’ve made it this far which was one of our goals this season. It’s been a really good year.”

The Lady Dragons were led in the district tourney by senior Olivia Lewis, who shot 100 (47-53) for the 18 holes, good for ninth overall in the individual standings. The irony- this is the first year in high school that Lewis, a multi-sport athlete, has been a member of the girls golf team and she was a co-winner of the SHAC Tournament and now will be teeing off at the state tourney.

“It’s my first year of golf and my last year of high school golf and it has definitely been a roller coaster,” said Lewis. “If you had asked me a year ago today if I would be playing golf in the state tournament, I would have simply said ‘no way’. Someone asked me at a basketball game to play golf this year but I wasn’t that interested and then when our softball team had a golf scramble I was asked to play in it and I said ‘sure’ and now I have literally played every day since the beginning of May. I certainly didn’t expect to win the SHAC Tournament and this has been such a rewarding season, golf is my favorite sport now! I wish I would have found it sooner because who knows how good I could have been.”

“We will be going against the best at state and nobody expected us to be there so hopefully we can surprise some people and get close to the top. Winning would be nice but we are really in it to have fun.”

Junior Emmy Stapleton was the next Lady Dragon to appear on the leader board, shooting a 101 (50-51) for the district. Stapleton also talked to the Defender about the excitement she is feeling as her and the team prepare for state competition.

“It feels great,” said Stapleton. “I’ve been golfing since I was nine years old and I’ve always wanted to go somewhere with it. I’m really glad to be going to state because it means something to our school and to our county. I actually called my Dad after we found out and I cried.”

“I was very confident going into districts. I knew if our team played the way we know how that we could make it. Our team is very consistent and all the way from our one to five golfers, there really isn’t that much of a difference in scores. We don’t have a girl on our team who doesn’t pull her weight.”

“I was talking to my coach in between holes and asking her how we were doing and we were worried about one other team (Minford) beating us,” Stapleton continued. “By the time we got to our last hole, we were eight strokes behind but they still had most of their golfers out on the course so that’s when it got stressful and exciting at the same time. It was my Mom who actually told me that we had made it to state. It was one of the most exciting things. I just want to enjoy the state tournament more than anything. I know we are a long shot but I want us to do good, but I don’t want any of our girls to get stressed out. Just enjoy playing on such a great course and have fun.”

Junior Nina McCann, who tied with teammate Lewis for the SHAC crown, carded a 107 (54-53) in the district tourney and like her teammates, is very excited about this new opportunity.

“It is all still so surreal,” said McCann. “No other girls team in our school’s history can say they did what we did and that can never be taken away. It just makes me really happy to think that I helped do something special for our school. I was our third golfer finished at the district and after I got back we could see that we were really close with Minford. We keep our scores on an app and for like an hour I just kept refreshing that screen like every five seconds to see if anything had been updated. It was like an hour and a half after we got done before we knew we had made it. We were all just jumping up and down and smiling and they kicked us out of the clubhouse because we were too loud.”

“My goal for state is to just have fun and be happy we made it this far. It’s like the ultimate goal of any school and we did it.”

Rounding out the West Union quintet at the district were sophomore Annabelle McIntosh at 111 (55-56) and sophomore Eva DeMint also at 111 (57-54).

“The thought of playing at state is pretty nerve-wracking,” says DeMint. “I was just so happy to go to districts last year and now we’re going a step above that and it’s going to be a lot different. When I found out we are going to state, I was just like ‘Holy Cow!’ and I was trying to hold in my tears for a picture. I was in shock at first and everyone was just jumping up and down around me and I just thought I was dreaming. It’s all really amazing and I just hope to have fun and do my best.”

Coach Nehus has an assistant coach this season, her four-year high school golf teammate, Emily McCarty. It’s been a pretty good first season for McCarty, topped off with a state trip.

“Marci texted me and told me she has enough girls to warrant an assistant coach and I can’t believe it but here I am,” said McCarty. “It’s been stressful here at the end but overall this has been a great experience for me. I cannot believe we are going to state but none of this would be possible without Marci. We’ve been telling our girls that no one has done this before and to enjoy it.”

Also competing in the Division II Girls district tournament was North Adams junior Emmy Holt, who finished the 18 holes with a score of 111 (54-57).

The West Union girls will travel to Akron and play a practice round on Saturday, October 12 and the state tournament will begin with 18 holes on Sunday, October 13 and conclude with 18 holes on Monday, October 14. All of the action will be on the Firestone Country Club- Fazio Course.