“It is more of a personal sport, you do not depend on others ability to help you out in this sport, it is all on you,” said sophomore Hannah Dooley.
Dooley kicked off her freshman year by playing golf after having a little experience that summer. For the first year, as a golfer, she found out that Paoli did not have a girl’s golf team. Dooley had not paid attention to this before, since she had never really been into this sport anytime previously. This lead to Dooley having to play on the boy’s golf team that year. Although she did not get to attend the meets, Dooley was satisfied at the time to just be able to practice.
“I loved playing golf with the boys. They taught me a lot, and understood that I was new to the whole golf situation,” said Dooley.
Not being able to play in the meets made Dooley desperate to have their own girl’s golf team; the first year was tough. She had to find teammates, coaches and someone to drive her to meets for there to be a chance for a Paoli girl’s golf team.
Dooley found finding a coach was difficult, so she turned to her dad. Dooley’s dad became the temporary Paoli girl’s golf coach. Dooley’s mother supplied transportation and food. This came easy to Dooley’s parents because there was only one player on the team.
“It was not that no one wanted to join, we just did not have enough time to notify everyone by the time the season started,” said Dooley.
Because no one else had time to join, Dooley was her own team that year. Dooley spoke up saying that if she had to choose, between being bad at golf but have a team, or be good at golf and be an individual. Dooley was anxious to attend her first few meets as an individual. Fortunately, many other girls from other schools took Dooley in.
“Going alone was scary at times,” said Dooley, “But the other girls took me in. The Valley team was very considerate and treated me like one of their teammates.”
Although Dooley now has golf, she believes if things were different for Dooley she most likely would not be playing this sport. Dooley would be playing softball if she had never been introduced to golf.
“Golf runs in the family. It would have been hard not to pick up a club my whole life. But I definitely do not regret getting started,” said Dooley.
For Dooley the first year was tough. Last golf season Dooley went to sectional along with Caitlin Henderson and Katelyn Noah. Dooley advanced to regionals as an individual, and there she broke records. She did not want to do golf because she was not the best at playing. As the year went on, golf did not just become any sport, it became her sport.
Story and Photo by Meagan Dooley
