When it comes to the most popular sports at schools, it is almost always football, basketball, soccer, etc. and some people tend to only focus on them. Especially during the fall season, almost all the attention is on football due to their upcoming games. However, due to the center of focus being on the more “popular” sports, people tend to forget about the under highlighted ones. And this same situation occurs here at Hayfield.

A team in Hayfield that has accomplished so much but is unknown at this school is our golf team. In fact with the fall sports ending, they only lost two games in total the whole season. They truly have achieved many things that deserve recognition within our school community. Their coach is John Terrien, the autotech teacher or also known as “Coach T”.

Coach T describes the golf team to be, “A group of amazing students who he has seen grow not only as players but also as people. What they have accomplished as a team, truly makes him very proud.” 

With being district champions not once but two years in a row for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, and also playing in states in 2019, their skill is definitely proven. But why is the golf team and everything they’ve achieved unknown? Well one member of the team Lindsay Smith describes why.

 “I think because our team is so small and because people aren’t as familiar with golf as they are with other sports, people tend to forget about us. I think some people don’t even know we have a golf team.” Senior Lindsay Smith said.  “I get why, though. It’s a lot more common and easier to go to a football game with your friends than to go walk 9 or 18 holes of golf.”

Additionally, there are also team members accomplishments that should have acknowledgement as well. Coach T shouts out members Alex Francisco who competed at the states this year, and Sue Lee as players that make him really proud. Referred to as the “number one golfer”, Sue Lee is known as the MVP. She has won districts four times in a row, has gone to states four years in a row and has placed second, won regionals, and is even going on to play golf for the Naval Academy. Besides being very proud of herself, she is also very happy she can make others around her proud as well. 

“My coach is really supportive of me and I’ve just been working hard for the past 4-5 years,” Senior Sue Lee said. 

With these accomplishments and hardworking, skillful players, the golf team should be recognized as one of the best sports teams at Hayfield. The concept of some sports being more popular than others cannot be prevented, but there are some ways that Hayfield can help spread more awareness of the “unpopular” ones. Some ideas that both Lindsay Smith and Sue Lee have is to congratulate student athletes and teams within Hawk News, or have spirit themes for games like football does. 

“The other day I was just talking with some of my friends about how Sue Lee (our #1 golfer) is arguably one of the best athletes at Hayfield, considering how good she is at golf and yet barely anyone knows. She’s very humble about her accomplishments, but it’s funny to think that if she were this good at another more “popular” sport, she’d be a superstar,” Smith said.

Mr. Mough also has given his input on the discussion of whether or not student achievement is well known throughout our school community.

“There’s certainly- I think, historically, a challenge within schools making sure that the student body as a whole knows about all the things that are going on within the school,  not just a couple of the more popular or biggest things. And that is a challenge regardless of whether we’re talking about various sports teams or performing arts. There are students walking around in the halls that don’t have any idea of the accomplishments of their classmates.”

In addition, he also emphasized the importance of highlighting student achievement. “We’re always open to ideas of how we can make that happen. So, you know, everyone is getting the attention they deserve for the great things they’re doing with the name of the school attached to their work.”