Ever since the beginning of the season, Laura Trenor believed the New Hope High School girls golf team could win a state title.
The first-year coach did her best whenever she could to boost the confidence of her players and to convince them they were ready to take the next step after finishing fourth in their past two trips to the state’s biggest stage.
But Trenor couldn’t help feel nervous Tuesday when the Lady Trojans were finally ready to tee off at the Class II state championships in Holly Springs after rain forced Monday’s opening round to be postponed. Her players made sure they did their best to make Trenor feel at ease.
“They were focused and ready to play,” Trenor said. “Once we started to play they said, ‘We got this,’ but I was more nervous than them. They didn’t show any emotion as far as being nervous. I think it finally sunk in that they knew they had a good shot (at winning the state title).”
Buoyed by a round of 86 by junior Mary Grace Caldwell and a 90 by freshman Belle Keopraseut, the New Hope girls golf team realized the dream Trenor said was within their grasp and won the Class II state championship at Kirkwood National Golf Club. New Hope won the title with a 176, edging New Albany (179) and George County (184). Caldwell’s round tied for silver medalist honors, and was three shots better than her best round last year at the Class II state championship at Sunkist Country Club in Biloxi. Keopraseut’s round was 22 and 23 shots better than the rounds she fired last year. Junior Taylor White rounded out New Hope’s threesome with a round of 113. The rain Monday forced the 36-hole championship to be shortened to 18 holes.
The title is the first for the team, which is only in its third season.
“It was incredible,” Trenor said. “I knew if we could come into it and have all three of them play a great round of golf we had a great shot of doing well and possibly winning it. I knew there were a lot of great teams in it, but I knew they could do it if they came to play and played as good as they played (this season), especially in the Oxford tournament and the Starkville tournament.”
Trenor said the team was supposed to tee off at 8 a.m. Monday, but it rained until about 11 a.m. Tournament officials watched weather reports and saw reports of tornadoes in the area, so Trenor said the teams were told to return to their hotels. Fortunately, Trenor said the Lady Trojans were nearly able to complete an 18-hole practice round on the course Sunday and were able to work on the driving range and to practice their putting and chipping Monday. She said the work both days helped put the players in the right frame of mind that they could compete with the best teams in that classification.
On Tuesday, Trenor said the day was filled with back-and-forth play in all three groups. While she followed Keopraseut, she said she received updates from Caldwell’s father, Andy, so she was able to monitor the players’ progress. Still, she said she wasn’t sure how the teams would stack up until late in the round when Andy Caldwell informed her Mary Grace was up by five strokes on the second to last hole. She realized on the final hole with Caldwell holding a three-stroke lead in her group that the team had a shot to take home the crown.
“For Mary Grace to be mentally tough in that situation was really great,” Trenor said. “She knew it was up to her on that last hole and that she had to do good for us to win it. … For it to come together at the end was amazing.”
Caldwell parred the final hole while Keopraseut kept pace with the New Albany and george County players to ensure New Hope would take home the winner’s trophy and medals. Trenor said Keopraseut’s growth from 2013 to this season was a key to the title. A year ago, Trenor said Keopraseut’s confidence lapsed during the two-round event. On Tuesday, though, she said she never had to pump the freshman up to get her re-focused.
“She had more confidence than I have seen her have,” Trenor said. “It is crazy that she was 22 strokes better than she was last year. With her being a ninth-grader, she could have easily broken down, but she kept her composure the whole day and did great.”
After an early start to the day and a back-and-forth round of golf, Trenor said it was satisfying to see the Lady Trojans mature from their fourth-place finish last year at the Class II state championship and climb all the way to the top.
“I would remind them to be confident and to stay positive,” Trenor said. “I could see it all week last week when we worked on 100-yard-and-in shots and chipping and putting. Our biggest strength in the tournament came from us working on that the past two weeks. We worked on that a whole lot more because we knew it was our weakness and it gave us confidence in those shots. They had a lot of those shots that needed to work out well, and that is what happened and allowed us to get to the top, our short game.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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