I have heard that many golf teams struggle with chemistry because many golfers who have spent the better half of their life on solely golf have never been on a team that travels, plays, eats, sleeps, and breathes together. I believe that camaraderie and support on a golf team is extremely important, and I am excited to contribute to a college golf team. From playing on a 1st grade soccer team, to a nationally ranked volleyball team, my life has been filled with more teams than I can count, and I look forward to bringing this to whatever team I play on. As a freshman and sophomore on my school golf team I held the role of captain and embraced my younger and older teammates with team sleepovers at my house, matching school visors, and an instagram page that many non-golfers at our school have come to love. I asked my long time volleyball coach Justice Magraw (far left in the photo below) to write a bit about me as a team member based on her observations over the years. She played at Sudden Impact and went on to play at the Division I volleyball level at the University of Washington, returning to Sudden Impact to coach multiple teams, and was the coach of my high school team for two years. She maintained a 4.0 GPA during her college career, and earned a Servant Leadership Award in 2011.
"I have gotten to coach Ivy for over 3 years and have immensely enjoyed having her on my teams. She has an obvious joy for learning and improving and works hard to not only develop skills but to understand why those skills are important to the game overall. Ivy is always open and receptive to feedback and I feel confident that when I give her something to work on, I can go talk to other players and she will take ownership of her learning and work on whatever I have asked her to. She constantly demonstrates maturity, self-discipline, and hard work in whatever she does both on and off the court. She leads by humble example for her teammates and is often referenced when her team is asked for an example of a good leader. One idea Ivy has really taken to is “every play every day,” which focuses on the idea that everything we do on and off the court matters to our success, and she is a person who will often do whatever is best for the team, even if it’s inconvenient. Ivy was someone I always trusted to go to for feedback on my own coaching and anything regarding the success of our team. I knew she would be empathetic, honest, and fair. She is someone that has made a significant impact on the culture of each team she has been on and I know will continue to do so in any team/culture/community she is a part of."