All ‘fore’ the best: High school golfers among those with best shot at college scholarships
Jim Downey/For the Observer-Reporter
In this 2020 file photo, Remmey Lohr chips onto the 16th green at Duck Hollow Golf Club during the WPIAL Boys Class AA Team Golf Championship. Lohr now plays golf on the women’s team at West Virginia Wesleyan College and received a partial scholarship to do so.
Courtesy of Remmey Lohr
Remmey Lohr of Carmichaels plays golf for West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she received a scholarship for the sport.
Courtesy of Remmey Lohr
Remmey Lohr of Carmichaels is a member of the golf team at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Sometimes, father really does know best.
Carmichaels native Remmey Lohr said hers told her if she played golf and worked hard at her game, she’d have a better chance at a scholarship to help pay for her post-secondary education.
So, when Lohr, now 20, was a student at Carmichaels Area Senior High School, she and her sister joined the school’s team. They were the only two girls to do so, and, said Lohr, listening to her father paid off.
Recruitment letters started coming.
Among them was one from West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she’s a junior majoring in management with a double minor in marketing and art – and receiving a scholarship to play on the school’s golf team. Although the golf scholarship didn’t give her a full ride, it did substantially cut down on her tuition costs.
“I’m very fortunate,” she said.
While the Friday night lights of football get a lot of attention, area athletic directors said sometimes, the athletes who play the less traditional sports are the ones who find themselves in a better position to secure college scholarships.
“No doubt, they (colleges and universities) are always looking to fill rosters with kids that can help their sports programs, especially the more local you get,” said Harry Kaufman, athletic director for Uniontown Area School District in Fayette County.
Kaufman said while sports like golf, hockey or lacrosse normally don’t get the same attention as the bigger sports, the colleges that he communicates with – especially Division 2 and 3 schools – have asked about student athletes who play those auxiliary sports.
“I do think there are some sports that are easier to get into for collegiate scholarship (opportunities) than others,” said Brian Geyer, athletic director for Peters Township School District.
He, too, mentioned girls’ golf, noting that there are only a handful of schools in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties that offer golf programs. For young women who’d like to pursue post-secondary education, playing golf in high school could translate to an increased opportunity to find scholarship money at a college or university looking to fill a team, he said.
Ed Dalton serves as the athletic director at McGuffey School District in Washington County, and is also the head football coach at the high school. He said another factor in the rise in scholarship opportunities – particularly for the less traditional sports – is Title IX.
Title IX is a federal law that was passed in 1972 to ensure that male and female students and employees in educational settings are treated equally and fairly. Part of that includes a college providing male and female athletes with equal access to financial aid. Funds allocated to athletic scholarships must be proportionate to the participation of male and female athletes.
Dalton explained that, if a certain number of scholarships go toward football, then proportionate number of scholarships have to go toward sports for women. He said he’s seen female wrestling, which has been at the club level for the past five or 10 years, begin to emerge as the next possible sport to get the attention of colleges.
“Last year, WPIAL officially approved it,” Dalton said. “We don’t offer it yet. We typically need student interest first.”
Lohr urged high school girls who are golfers to reach out to college coaches.
“There are schools that people don’t know about that would give scholarships, especially for women’s golf because women’s golf is struggling to find recruits,” Lohr said, using her own college as an example.
But, she said, just being on the team isn’t enough. Coaches want quality players who have a solid game and care about their sport.
“Even if you’re not the best golfer, if you’re dedicated and want to work to be better at it, they’ll help you,” Lohr said.
Rich Evans, athletic director for the Connellsville Area School District in Fayette, said in his experience, students who play either golf or ice hockey have the highest chance of receiving a scholarship to play in college. The caveat to that, he said, is that it’s rarely a full ride.
“Unless you’re a dynamic, once-in-a-lifetime type of player, probably destined to be in the major league, students almost never receive a full scholarship,” Evans said. “It’s highly competitive, that’s why we always try to tell our students for as special as you are, there’s someone at a neighboring school just as good or as close as good as you.”
And how a high school athletes conducts themselves has become just as important as their prowess on the court, course, rink or mat, he said.
“A school is going to be very careful who they’re committing to. You have to do all the right things on and off the field, in the classroom and in the community,” Evans noted.
Especially over the past few years, he said, athletic directors and coaches have started talking to student athletes about being thoughtful about what they post on social media.
“These colleges are doing their homework,” Evans said. “You have to think about the bigger picture, getting good grades, preparing for the real world and doing the right thing to make yourself marketable for your future.”