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Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Football Player Trades Friday Night Lights for Days on the Links
Raleigh Durham, NC
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Ravenscroft sophomore Wilson Day remembers the day the golf team brought home a second consecutive golf state championship — it was like any other.
“No one treats us any different,” Day said. “The team kind of operates under the radar.”
That is a surprise for a returning championship team that also boasts an impressive record of three state championships in the past four years. But such is the case for what head coach Jimmy Cox described as a “lonely game.”
High-revenue sports like basketball and football often receive a disproportionate amount of publicity at not only a professional and collegiate level, but at the prep level as well. And the Ravenscroft golf team is no exception.
“Everybody watches football and basketball, that’s the way it is,” said senior Bo Andrews. “But it’s hard to get too caught up in that.”
Cox agreed, though noting that the team receives ample publicity at the school and in some local news publications.
“We take anything we can get and we’re happy to get it,” he said. “I’m not complaining about football. Football rules the roost because it brings in the revenue and it’s understandable.”
And Cox has had plenty of experience in his 33-year tenure of coaching at the Raleigh high school, with a hand in everything from junior varsity basketball to high school football.
Regardless, to football’s crowds of thousands Cox prefers the green of dozens.
“We’ve got a lot of sports,” Cox said. “We have eight different teams. But if I could sit down at the office on August 1and tell them the two sports I would want to coach, it’d be middle school basketball and golf.”
And though publicity and attention reflects the disparity between high-publicity and low-revenue sports, he is not the only one choosing the latter.
“I played everything that you can imagine from baseball to soccer to basketball,” said junior Zak Dearinger. “Golf just clicked. The golf course was where I belonged and what I wanted to do.”
Wilson Day, who played the tailback and safety positions in football, chose love of the game over the lure of Friday night lights. This year, he decided to forego playing for the football team to dedicate himself to golf.
“Football is just one of those things where you are going to have a big turnout,” Day said. “Golf you get about two or three people watching, but it’s not discouraging.”
That’s because though the team hosts only a handful of spectators during competition, the players can always count on a few familiar faces. And those certainties make it all worth it, Dearinger said.
“You can tell we were the only team that all came back and watched each others holes,” Dearinger said. “It’s like a family out there. All the guys are like my brothers. I couldn’t imagine a year without one of them,” Dearinger said.
Unfortunately after the spring season, the team will have to. Senior Bo Andrews will help lead the team with sights set on a third consecutive state championship in his final season.
A leader both on and off the green and recipient of multiple honorable mentions, the senior has already committed to Georgia Tech to play collegiate golf.
“It’s sad to know that it’s going to end,” Andrews said. “It’s been unbelievable. You realize you’ve got to make the last year the best.”
If the last two years are any indication, the expectations for the upcoming season are set high and somewhat under the radar, Dearinger said.
Just the way the Ravens like it.
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