Last week, the Northeast District Athletic Board released the sites for Sectional and District Tournaments. This year’s Sectional sites and assignments will look very similar to last year’s. The big change is that the Girls Division II District Tournament will now be held at Good Park Golf Course in Akron on October 2nd.
The assignments are available via a Google Sheet on the NEDAB Website, which is linked below. Please note, these are subject to change.
Laurel School in Shaker Heights is looking for a JV golf coach this upcoming season. It is a paid position and will go from July 31-September 19. There are 6-7 girls on the JV roster that are excited to play golf this season. Please contact Marti Hardy at mHardy@LaurelSchool.org if interested.
This article is used with permission from the Hudson Explorer School Newspaper and Ellie Davis. The original article can be viewed by clicking here.
By Ellie Davis, Hudson High School Class of 2024
Sherry Du, a junior here at Hudson High School, is an incredibly talented student and an even better friend, teammate and just person in general. According to her peers, she is driven, kind, hardworking, hilarious, thoughtful and someone they know they can rely on no matter what. She is taking and has taken some of the most rigorous AP courses at Hudson, has been a varsity golfer since freshman year and is involved in a plethora of extracurricular activities both in and out of Hudson. The most impressive part about Du is that in the face of everything she does she is incredibly personable and has been described as “a really good friend” by her coaches and peers alike. The purpose of this article is not only to highlight Du and the amazing things she does, but also to portray her perspective on her life and everything that she does so people can understand the answer to the question: Who is Sherry Du?
It is no secret that Du is an excellent student, golfer and musician, but exactly how many activities is she involved in? Du gave a list consisting of golf, Spanish Honors Society, National Honors Society, Science Olympiad, which Du happens to be a Vice President of, Hudson Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO). Du spoke enthusiastically about all of these activities and it was clear that she truly cares about and enjoys being a member of all of them. Something Du mentioned specifically about golf is that “it has been really fun and definitely a really great experience for me getting to meet all my amazing teammates.” Du is a three-year varsity golfer for Hudson and according to head coach Mr. Bolin, she is “a positive role model not only for her peers but for younger people as well.” Du also specified that she spends about four hours in Cleveland every weekend as a part of COYO, and that in her spare time she likes to practice her violin because according to Du, “if I don’t I’ll get yelled at.” This casual remark, aside from showcasing Du’s amazing sense of humor, is a great example of how dedicated she is to always doing her best.
So, how exactly does one go about managing a life as busy as this? A life like Du’s can be incredibly challenging and demanding, but as Du has gotten older she has gotten better at managing her time so that she may succeed in everything she does. “I would definitely say that time management, in and of itself as a skill that I’ve acquired, has definitely been one of my biggest challenges. Especially during my freshman year and early parts of my sophomore year, I wasn’t really effective with study techniques and that gave me a lot of grief and caused me to lose a lot of sleep.“ For Du, overcoming this challenge was a big part of her early high school career because “sometimes it meant not spending so much time on certain activities in order to prioritize others in order to have a balance of how well [she] was doing in everything overall.“ Finding the study techniques that work best for her has allowed Du to take on more and be successful in everything she does. Additionally, if Du could give one piece of advice to a freshman it would be “learn your study techniques first, and always prioritize your sleep over everything else.“ Doing these things herself has enabled Du to manage her busy schedule and still stay sane while doing it.
In order to truly understand who Sherry Du is, it is important to hear from someone who knows her well and can speak to her abilities, especially in golf. When asked to describe Du, Mr. Bolin, her golf coach, said that “Sherry is one of the most driven, motivated people that I have ever come across – and it’s not just on the golf course. It seems like anything she puts her mind to she excels and exceeds at. It’s honestly incredible how good she is at everything she does.” Mr. Bolin, or Coach Bolin as Du knows him, has coached her for three years and said that not only has her golf ability continued to improve, but also her confidence as a teammate and leader. “I think Sherry realized that she had potential in a lot of things, and I think her growth has been in deciding where she wants to utilize her talents.” Mr. Bolin also thinks that “she came with a wide range of abilities, and she’s done a really great job determining which of those things she is going to use for her future when it comes to selecting a college and career.” As her golf coach, Mr. Bolin understands and sees the amount of potential Du has, as well as her ability to continually grow in something she is already fantastic at.
Mr. Bolin also looks forward to Du’s upcoming golf season and thinks that she “has the potential to have a fantastic senior year on the golf course. I’m excited to see her senior year because this is the culmination of everything she’s been working towards, and I think both individually and as a team we have the ability to do some pretty cool things this year.” Last year Du almost made it to States, and this year both she and her coach look forward to trying to make that goal a reality. Du is an incredible golfer, but it is her qualities as a leader that set her apart from the rest. These qualities are what her coach looks the most forward to seeing this year and says that “it has been really awesome to see Sherry jump into a leadership position on the team whether it’s running our social media account or setting up practices in the weight room.” Past seniors have done an incredible job leading the team, and Mr. Bolin thinks that Du and her fellow seniors are doing an amazing job “taking the baton” from them and living up to the high standards they set.
By now it is clear that Du is an amazing student and golfer, but according to Bolin “what a lot of people overlook is how good of a person she is. She is a really good friend. She is reliable. She’s always there when you need her and she’ll go out of her way to do something for someone else.” Du credits her parents as her biggest inspiration and reason for who she is today. “Apart from that, I think there have always been a couple of teachers who I think have been really inspiring, and my teammates have always been a big inspiration for me. I think they show me what a leader should look like.” It is these people, Du believes, who have inspired her to be the person she is today and helped her continue to be a person they can be proud of.
Who is Sherry Du? She is everything that has just been said and so much more. She prides herself on being someone her peers can look up to, and she continues to find inspiration in those around her. She is a phenomenal student, stellar golfer, show-stopping musician, incredibly supportive friend and all around good person that anyone would be extremely lucky to know.
Natalie Kostalnick from Strongsville High School is a Student Scholar Athlete with a 4.3 grade point average, the Greater Cleveland Conference Golfer of the Year for the past two seasons, and a future veterinarian who is already shadowing at some of the largest clinics in the Cleveland area. If those accomplishments and aspirations were all that made Natalie who she has become, it would be an amazing story. But there is more.
Since 2016, Natalie has worked to raise over $25,000 to donate to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus working for a non-profit she started called Drive Out Child Cancer. “There are kids who cannot get out of their hospital rooms for days or even months to do the things they love,” Natalie explained. After playing in a tournament at Ohio State, Natalie and her father made it their mission to raise money for those individuals who need it the most. “I went to the local bar that my family eats at and cleaned bar stools and bar rails. I made $100 and came up with my own $150 more.” She became the first person to donate money to Nationwide that way and decided she could help even more, leading to the beginning of her nonprofit. She mentioned that it has been hard to get the fundraising going since the Covid pandemic, but she is working hard to get it back on track.
Natalie Kostalnick started playing golf at the age of eight. The story began at Mr. Divot’s Sports Center in North Royalton where she was watching her sister hit softballs at the batting cages. “I was not talented enough to hit a softball,” Natalie recalled, “so my dad sent me and my mom to grab me a cut down shaft golf club. And now I’m 10 years into playing the sport.” She started playing in tournaments shortly after that and realized that she had talent when she started to see her name appearing at the top of those leaderboards.
As soon as Natalie stepped on the golf course her freshman year she immediately became the number one player on the team. “I was horrified to play on the team,” she said. “I was going to be the youngest one with some of the best scores. I was definitely intimidated. But there was nothing to worry about because they all welcomed me without any hesitation.” One player that had a huge impact on Natalie is Madison Gilbert, who is one year ahead of Natalie and a recent graduate who will be attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. “We were in elementary school together,” Natalie said. “She is the person I would run to when we had to pick partners at practice. When we have conversations she always listens and gives me the best advice.” Those conversations range from golf to traditional teenage girl talk. “I am very sad to see her leave this year but I know she will go on and do AMAZING things at Miami. Everyone needs a Madison!”
According to Strongsville coach Kevin Weir, “Natalie has changed the culture of our program and has turned it into a contender each year.” They won back-to-back Greater Cleveland Conference Championships in 2021 and 2022, with 2021 being their first in a decade. Natalie led the Mustangs to the District Tournament her freshman year by shooting an 83 at the Sectional Tournament at Sweetbriar Golf Course and followed it up with an 83 at Districts at Ellsworth Meadows. The Sectional Tournament was moved to Springvale Golf Course in 2021, a move that helped Natalie take her game to a whole new level as her 74 helped Strongsville finish in second place. Again, she performed well at the District Tournament at Brookledge with an 82, earning a top 20 finish. She matched her 74 at Sectionals this past season. Natalie knew that she had played well, but was not sure exactly how well. “I did not keep score in my head. When I heard I shot 74 I was honestly surprised. My game felt good but not that good.” It was that good. Natalie finished tied for second place overall in the tournament and her team advanced to Districts yet again.
The weather worsened for Districts at Brookledge in 2022 and high scores were common all around the golf course. Natalie was disappointed with an 89. “The temperature was everywhere,” she said. “It’s hard to play with multiple layers.” That was not meant to be an excuse because other factors were at play. “I also think that nerves got the best of me,” she added. “It is hard to play with the top players in your area and keep that off your mind. It’s much easier said than done.” She is already looking at it as a learning experience.
Natalie is also very happy to share what she has already learned and her experiences with her younger teammates. “I try to give advice (not only golf), try to help them with the game, and I am just always an open ear to help them with anything,” she said. She has had a huge impact on one player for sure. The number two player on the Strongsville varsity team is Hannah Lee, a talented up and coming junior who has some serious golf skills. “It’s amazing to see the golfer and the person that she has become in the last two years,” Natalie said proudly. “I hope I’ve taught her a few things before I leave next year.” What are some of those things? “I try to help her out as much as I can, like reminding her to not four-putt at least once a round,” she responded with a smile. “We know each other’s attitudes and know when we need to be consoled and when to leave each other alone.” Some teams struggle with building chemistry, but because of Natalie along with her past and current teammates, Strongsville is not one of them. “I am very lucky to have such a tight knit team,” she explained.
Coach Weir agrees that Natalie has been a transformative influence on his program. “Natalie has completely changed who Strongsville Golf is as a program since she has been a freshman,” he explained. “Natalie is a natural leader and has shown it since day one.” He added that she is the player who keeps the rest of the team on the same page, and has been doing it since she was named a captain as a sophomore. Coach Weir added, “She communicates with the team as needed during the offseason and makes sure everyone is doing okay on and off the course during the season.”
Coach Weir mentioned that one of the keys to being successful in high school golf is using the summer to improve. Between the end of the school year and the beginning of August, the time typically goes by very quickly. Natalie tries to simulate the rigor of the high school season when she plays over the summer. She typically plays in well over ten tournaments and gets out as often as possible to get practice rounds in. There is one key aspect to all of the practice and competition. “I make sure that I am prioritizing having fun,” she said. Some of the most fun that many junior golfers have over the summer is at the Hudson Junior Invitational, which takes place toward the end of June each year. Natalie was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to play in the Hudson Junior last summer. “It was hard with my dad not being there because he was out of town, but my friends came out to watch,” Natalie explained. “It was also nice to get paired up with one of my friends (Isabella Paez from Magnificat) for the first two rounds.”
An amazing quality shared by the talented high school golfers in Northeast Ohio is how they are able to excel on the golf course while still having a huge impact on their respective communities as well. Natalie Kostalnick is another fine example of a top tier golfer whose impact reaches far beyond the fairways and greens. Coach Weir put it perfectly: “She has the biggest heart and is truly willing to do anything for anyone.”
Golf teaches you things you can’t learn anywhere else and it gives you experiences you never thought would be possible. Annie Stencel, a junior a Walsh Jesuit High School, can attest to that. From a very young age, Annie has used golf as a springboard to success both in and out of the classroom. She has developed into one of the top players in Northeast Ohio and someone that her coaches, teammates, and opponents both respect and admire.
Annie’s love for golf started at a very young age. “I was four or five years old,” she said. “My grandpa would come down from Buffalo to play golf with my dad. One day I asked, ‘Why can’t I go with you?'” The next day, she was at St. Bernard’s Golf Club in Richfield with her father, learning how to swing a club. Over a decade later, Annie Stencel was teeing the ball up at Brookledge Golf Course playing in the District Tournament as an individual qualifier. She admits it wasn’t an easy road to get there. “I played in the PGA Junior League and joined a middle school team coached by Greg Jones. I played mostly with boys in those programs.” This experience helped her move her way into individual competitions and prepared her for high school golf. “I was humbled by the talent,” she explained, referring to the Northern Ohio PGA Junior Tour and her OHSAA opponents. She made it her mission to get better and compete with the talented players she met along her journey.
Between her sophomore and junior year, Annie improved her scoring average by over six strokes. This can be attributed to an amazing work ethic and a strong desire to compete. “I always seemed to be paired with Cara (Heisterkamp, from Magnificat) or a Goyette (Alessandra and Isabella, from Highland).” Many players will say playing with the best players makes them a better player. Annie was intimidated at first but has grown to appreciate playing with the best competition. “You get used to it,” she explained. “Cara and Isabella are amazing golfers. They are on a completely different level.”
Playing against the best, paired with a ton of range work, offseason practice, and playing in as many competitive events as she could have all helped Annie build a terrific resume. She broke 80 in an 18 hole event for the first time last summer at Ellsworth Meadows. “It will always have a special place for me,” she said, referring to the highly regarded layout in Hudson. She ended up tying her career best of 79 five times this fall en route to earning several honors. Annie was the Crown Conference Player of the Year and led Walsh Jesuit to the overall team championship. She shot 80 (42-38) at Sectionals to earn the second of four individual qualifying spots to the District Tournament. “Recovery is probably the best part of my game; the ability to shrug it off and play better afterward,” she said alluding to the 2021 Sectional Tournament where she shot 50 on the easier front nine at Fox Den, followed by a 38 on the more difficult back nine. “Some of my best rounds have been after bad starts.”
Walsh Jesuit missed advancing to Districts as a team by a mere two shots last season, something that Annie hopes to change in 2023. “One of my goals is to go to Districts as a team,” she said, embracing the leadership role that she had to take up her sophomore year. This is where she believes that she has grown the most. Walsh Jesuit needed someone to step up as a leader, someone who had the talent, the ability to make teammates better, and to build unity. Nobody expected that role to be filled by someone who barely even spoke early on in high school. “I was very introverted my freshman year,” she openly admitted. “My friends became my friends because they talked to me first.”
Walsh Jesuit had been one of the blue blood programs in Northeast Ohio for years but were starting to see a decline. The Warriors struggled at Sectionals Annie’s freshman year and then lost their top two players to graduation. It was up to her and Annie Cors, whose brother left a very strong legacy with Walsh Jesuit’s boys team. “When I was a sophomore I wanted to make the freshmen feel welcome,” Annie (S.) explained. After a trip to get ice cream after tryouts, a new team leader was born, much more outgoing and much more driven. “I want them to know and understand that this is fun,” she stated. When chemistry develops and role models emerge, success is almost guaranteed.
“One of my favorite feelings on the course is when I watch my teammates do something amazing,” Annie proudly admitted. Of course, “hitting a great shot when a lot of people are watching” also brings her a good amount of joy. As the team continues to build, Annie is trying to start new traditions and continue old ones. Team dinners, offering rides to the driving range, and bringing snacks to events appear to be building that chemistry.
While Walsh Jesuit has not made it to Districts since 2019, they finished one spot away the last two years and are primed to have a very strong team in 2023. The Warriors will return nearly their entire team this fall. Kate Figler, also an important member of the track team, will be the only loss to graduation. Cors will return after another year of huge improvement, shooting 86 at Sectionals, and just missing out as a qualifying individual. “When she’s not golfing, she’s always dancing,” Annie S. said about her talented junior co-captain. Two current freshmen will be instrumental in Walsh Jesuit’s success this year. Annie described Colleen Stadler as an “amazing golfer” who “has a lot of leadership potential.” Stadler burst onto the scene in 2022, having one of the most impressive years of any freshman in the area. She is joined by Gianna Rodenhauser, who also got a good deal of praise from Annie. “Gianna already has a personal best of 88. I was still shooting in the 100s as a freshman.”
Current sophomore Shaunee Miller and freshman Ava Roman bring the energy for the Warriors. “You can hear their voices a couple holes away,” quipped Annie, mentioning how much fun they are to have on the team. Sophomores Elise Miklos, who has won national dance competitions, and Isabel Martin, an extremely talented musician will also look to help the team compete.
Bill Reilly, the veteran coach of both the boys and girls teams at Walsh Jesuit, should have a shot to get the Warriors back to the level where his team was dominant in the mid 2010s. He knows for a fact that he will have the talent and the leadership to make that happen. Coach Reilly knows that Annie will be vital to the success of the team in 2023, “She is a driven leader with a strong work ethic, purposeful daily approach to all endeavors, and a great teammate to all.”
While her journey is still ongoing, Annie shared some words for younger players. “Get started and enjoy the game. It’s something you can take with you the rest of your life.” For their parents, using her dad, Jim Stencel, as an example, “Support your kids through the journey. It’s a fantastic opportunity. I’ve met so many people I would have never had the chance to meet, all because of golf.”
Annie plans to study physical or occupational therapy while playing golf in college. She hopes to make a decision on which school she will attend before the start of the 2023 golf season. “Annie will be a great addition to whichever collegiate program she chooses,” Reilly proudly stated. When she is not playing golf, Annie is busy maintaining a GPA above 4.0, working as the lighting director in school plays, participating in Academic Challenge, and baking cookies, brownies, and other delicious treats.
Walsh Jesuit Girls Golf, hosting their tournament at the Country Club of Hudson
Ohio High School Golf 