New team, same results. North Oconee girls golf wins fourth straight state title

When North Oconee High School girls' golf team won its fourth consecutive state title on Monday, it was the Titans’ first championship without a senior playing in the top three spots.

That goal put a lot of pressure on the team’s underclassmen—pressure that head coach Rob Melton has been trying to prepare them for throughout the season. He added more scrimmages and weightlifting sessions. He challenged them in practice and focused on reviewing techniques through video review.

“He has been getting a lot more serious, so I think that will help us prepare,” junior Aubree Hill said.

The Titans won the area tournament on April 17. They won state on Monday at The Fields Golf Club in LaGrange.

“There's going to be pressure,” Hill said before the team left for the tournament. “You want to be back-to-back-to-back-to-back state champions.”

North Oconee’s top player at state the past two seasons was Camryn Wright, who now plays for North Georgia. Last year, when North Oconee edged Westminster by just one stroke for the championship, she ranked fourth among class 4A individual scorers at the state tournament. The previous year, she ranked second among 4A scorers.

Now, without a clear No. 1 player, the underclassmen said they felt pressure to perform to Wright’s standard as an athlete.

“I don’t really think that much has changed for us — as far as how we’ve been and our standard,” Melton said. “If you look at the scores and things like that, we’ve always been kind of consistently right about where we are.”

Intensity at North Oconee is no facade. The girls begin acclimating to the program from a young age. Two eighth graders currently practice with the varsity players, said sophomore Hailey Moffett, who also began training with the team before she reached high school.

Adding younger girls to the team is one of Melton’s strategies for creating depth on the roster and keeping the atmosphere consistent.

“We just continue to do what we do and the girls figure out pretty quickly what we do, what we’re about and just jump in and go along with it,” Melton said.

The Titans had four seniors on the roster. Senior Cathryn Wagner said she hasn’t played at the level she had hoped, but she knows she is still a vital part of the team as a supporter.

“I usually just remind them that no matter what they just need to do their best for that day,” Wagner said of the younger players, “and there’s no pressure from the team because we’re still going to love them at the end of the day.”

As a junior, Hill said she also feels a responsibility to encourage the younger players, to pass down the support she received when she first joined varsity.

“When I shot my lowest high school round the seniors congratulated me. They were like, ‘We’re so proud of you, your hard work paid off.’ I think the seniors are kind of just there for moral support and I love that for them,” Hill said.

The girls said many of them are friends outside of golf, and their friendships have stayed consistent throughout difficult practices and meetings. Having each other during low moments has been critical, they said. This underlying team value has balanced Melton’s strong approach.

At practice, the girls must be focused and ready to compete. They are matched up against each other and work to beat whichever teammate they play that day.

“Even at practice, there’s a form of competition. It’s not just goofing off and having fun; it’s an actual drive to get better,” Wagner said.

Although team competition seems daunting for some, it drew most girls into the golf team. The high expectations the athletes and coaches set for themselves were a major draw for Moffett.

Melton often asks the girls what will help them grow as players and what they need from him.

“You just go do the best you can,” Melton said. “If it’s a year where that’s good enough to be the best in the state, then that’s great.”

Ana Escamilla is a student in the Sports Media Certificate program at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute. 

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: North Oconee girls golf wins fourth straight state title