College coaches scout golfers at River Greens event
WEST LAFAYETTE – Golf coaches from close to 40 colleges were invited to River Greens Golf Course on June 14 to scout area athletes.
“This is a great idea and opportunity for these kids,” said Bill Stufflebean, who coaches the girls’ team at River View High School.
The Top 100 Showcase was organized by Harry Huggins and his nephew Anthony Monaco. Huggins coaches the girls’ golf team at Indian Valley High School, which uses River Greens as its home course, and Monaco is the men’s golf coach at Urbana University.
Huggins said they had 20 boys register for the morning session and 22 girls register for the afternoon session. Each golfer had the chance to show coaches their putting game, short game and how they hit the ball off the tee. They also got advice from River Greens’ Doug Davis and Paige Lane.
“There are 18 different stations for them to go through,” Huggins said. “In the basketball world there are different places you can go to be seen by college coaches, but there really hasn’t been anything like that for golf. When I got my job at Indian Valley I wanted something to take my kids to where they would be seen. There was no place like that so we created this for them to be able to go play and be seen.”
Monaco said he hopes the event continues to grow.
Jana Shipley, who coaches at Ohio Wesleyan University, was impressed with their idea.
“We were told about this opportunity to come watch high school golfers and I thought it was an awesome idea,” she said. “I’m glad to see they had a great turnout.”
Shipley chatted with Stufflebean for a while who shared information with her about two of his golfers Marie Stufflebean and Maddie Cutshall.
“This is a great opportunity for us to put ourselves out there,” said Marie, who will be a junior at River View.
She and Cutshall both have high hopes of golfing in college.
“I want to put my name out there even though I’m young,” said Cutshall, who will be a sophomore at River View.
Before starting, Huggins told the girls not to put pressure on themselves.
“There is no such thing as pressure,” he said. “It’s just something we put on ourselves. This is just a game. Relax and go do your thing.”
Ridgewood High School’s Sadie Wilson took his words seriously.
“Being here means a lot to me,” she said. “I know I can do well. I just have to go out and play to my capabilities.”
Wilson, who will be a senior at Ridgewood, was joined at the event by her teammate Brianna Brady, who is going into her junior year.
“There are a lot of schools here so it’s a big opportunity,” she said.
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