Everyone has goals or dreams that they try to achieve. Mine, along with the rest of the Golf Team, was to win state golf.

It was a perfect spring day in May for our golf team; the perfect temperature, very little wind, and we all had the determination to win. We knew that we just needed to shoot a few strokes below our average to make it to state golf at Spring Valley. As a team, we shot a 322, which was a few strokes above our average. We were never sure that we would make it until all of the scores came in. Everyone on the team, even the coaches, were very nervous and unsure if we shot well enough to make it. We ended up winning Districts by 7 strokes to a team that we thought that we would shoot a lot better than what they did. I remember how I couldn’t stop smiling, along with everyone else on the team. We were all so happy to know that we were going to state. We got too distracted with the fact that we made it, and we didn’t focus on finishing our goal of winning state.

The week before state, we all practiced the same as we normally did, and we all played well in our practice rounds. Personally, I think that we could have done more to better our game with more practice even after practice was over. A few days before the meet, we went up to the course to remind ourselves what it looked like, possible pin positions, and where we want to hit the ball for each shot. We had already played a meet there earlier in the season. That meet just happened to be my best meet of the year, where I shot 1 under par and won the meet as an individual against Clear Lake, Bishop Garrigan, and Humboldt. I knew I had a chance to do the same thing again at state. In fact, I thought I had a chance to do even better. I had very big dreams for myself and our team, but didn’t give it my all to make those dreams come true.

Before we got ready to get to the course for the first day of state, I had time to go to the range at the Fort Dodge Country Club. It was raining, and windy; the exact opposite of Districts. I didn’t mind playing in the rain, because we played in the rain most of the year, but the wind really bugged me. I was hitting the worst shots I had hit all year. This made me even more nervous than what I already was. On the way up, we were a lot quieter than what we usually were; I think that we were all nervous about getting out there and playing. We were anxious to play, but we didn’t picture a dream of ours to be in these conditions. Once we got there, I decided to go to the range at Spring Valley. I was hitting better shots than before, but they still weren’t good shots. This made me a lot less worried.

We were finally ready to play the biggest event of our High School Golf careers. I started on the 12th hole because it was a shotgun start, which made the first few holes easy for me because I was really familiar with the back nine. I started out even par through my first 5 holes, and I became more confident with myself. I may have gotten a little too confident, because everything went downhill from there. The wind started to pick up, the rain came down harder, and I was hitting bad shots again. I ended the first day with an 84, my worst round of my high school season and career. As a team, we were in 5th out of 8 teams, which wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t what we were expecting.

We knew we had some catching up to do on the second day. If we all shot a few strokes better, which we all knew that we could, we would have a great chance of getting in the top 3, and maybe even in close contention for first place. The second day was the same weather conditions; wet and windy. I felt like I had my swing back, but that just wasn’t the case. I shot an 84 the second day, too. I was so frustrated with myself. I knew that this was our chance to be noticed by everyone, and I don’t think any of us played to our own expectations. We finished 6th at state, making us all disappointed in ourselves. At the same time, we kept our heads held high because we knew that making it this far was not easy. We also knew that we would only lose one of our six guys on varsity, so we had a good chance of coming back next year compared to the other teams that competed at state.

Next year, I am planning on practicing even after practice to get better. If we get another chance to compete at state, I want us to be a lot more focused than what we were in the spring of 2013. If we all stay focused throughout the whole entire season, then we can complete our goal of winning state.