Teri Tune
Sports Scene
The Greenville Yellow Jackets girls golf team has built a dynasty behind head coach Nancy Johnson. This year, they won their conference championship for the 10th year in a row, had four girls finish in the top ten at regionals, and finished third in the state.
“After winning the conference championship so many years in a row, people say, well, you just expect it to happen, but that’s not true,” Johnson said. “ Every time you win it, it’s special. In most cases, I have somebody in the group that hasn’t been a part of that winning team, and it’s special to see them go through it. It’s a goal we set, and fortunately we have girls that are dedicated and we make that goal happen.”
Which makes winning even more special for Johnson and her golfers.
“I’m very proud of these girls,” Johnson said. “The junior varsity coach and I talked about this years ago, and we have a motto that “winning breeds winning,” and we totally believe this. We are fortunate to have dedicated parents and a community behind us. The girls get excited about winning, and they are athletes and they know the way to do that is to practice and put the time in, and we are fortunate to have girls every year that do that. They play all summer and compete in the summer tournaments, and when the season starts, they are ready. I’m very lucky as a coach.”
Coach Johnson contributes her success not only to the girls’ dedication to the game, but also to a whole community’s effort.
“The Golf Emporium allows us to come in and hit balls all year round on any day we wish, and that is really a plus for us as a team to have them,” Johnson said.
The Yellow Jackets took third at the state meet with a two-day total of 719, coming in behind Mona Shores and Birmingham Seaholm.
“Our toughest opponent every year is Mona Shores, but we have also all become great friends,” Johnson said. “The girls from both teams get along so great and look forward to playing against each other. Every year they are the team we look forward to playing the most. Even though we weren‘t able to beat them, the girls all still were hugging, laughing, and in some cases crying with each other. That is a great thing to see.”
Leading Greenville was Jessica Meloche who finished 10th in the state with an overall score of 167 (87-80). Meloche’s 80 on Saturday was the second-lowest score of the day.
Britta Brenth shot a 176 (86-90), Jessica Bohner 187 (90-97), Lauryn Day 189 (96-93), and Tori Sanders 209 (99-110).
“Jessica and Britta both did great jobs, but this was really a whole team effort,” Johnson said. “Throughout the season, when one girl didn’t have a good round for some reason, somebody else was there to step up and get us where we needed to be. Every one of the girls have had their moment where they posted the good scores and without every one of them, as a team we couldn’t have ended up where we did. We are like a family here and although it’s sad as we send off our seniors this year, there are younger girls waiting in the wings, and we will make a new family and our story will go on. I’m proud of each and every one of them.”