Prima Changwatchai interviews Girls Golf Captain Brandee Benson about her efforts to promote inclusion and support on the golf team.
This is Brandy Benson one of two golf team captains discussing her experience as a captain ways to overcome challenges and growing as a team tell me a little bit about yourself I’m Brandy I’m your westw girls golf team captain I’m a senior this year you participated in golf I actually started
Playing golf um halfway through sophomore year so about two years why did you decide to join my parents play a lot of golf and I tried playing golf when I was a little kid and I didn’t like it but I thought it would be good to take up a sport I definitely don’t
Remember it uh so what do you enjoy about golf now I like how golf is such a mental game and it requires a lot of precision and it requires a lot of focus and drilling why do you think that you enjoy golf more now than you used to when you were a
Kid um I think when I was little I just didn’t have enough patience to practice so do you have any like fun stories or cool moments from your golf career honestly I think every practice has been fun especially this year because we’re all like friends with each other and we’ve like uber eated
Chickfila a morning practice sometimes and it’s just all good memories so what would you say would be one of your best memories um probably just the first tournament I ever played even though I did bad I’m pretty sure but it was it was exciting to compete for the first
Time so what’s your favorite part of being on the golf team I like that it’s a community and it feels like a family and it provides opportunities to make friends and just as golf is a mental game I think it strengthens that mental fortitude which is important in other aspects of
As well so what challenges have you faced um when I joined the team like halfway through sophomore year there were only two sophomores on the team and it felt like everyone was a lot better than me because most of them have been playing golf for a lot of years and
So it was kind of hard to start from the very bottom but it definitely taught me a lot about work ethic and commitment so how did you motivate yourself to be committed and work really hard it was hard sometimes and I do remember like at some point I was like
I’m not good at this like I should just quit but I had a lot of support for my parents because they golf a lot and I would golf with them and with my friends so what has this experience taught you um like like I said I think golf
Teaches you a lot about mental fortitude and having to commit to something because it requires a lot of practice and a lot of repetition doing the same thing over and over again to improve and get your like muscle memory down how about as a whole how has being on the
Golf team in general um giv you experiences that you can apply to just living in the real world I think working with others on a team even though golf is a relatively individual sport um but you practice together and you work together towards a common goal which is something that you
Also use a lot L your in life and what do you think your future in golf looks like I don’t plan on playing college golf but I think one good thing about golf is that it’s a lifelong sport that you can play and a lot of people play
Golf recreationally which is I plan to do and I can envision myself playing golf with my family in the future do you think you’ll keep in touch with the golf team after you leave Westwood I hope so yeah how are you chosen to be a golf
Captain this year it was a vote amongst the members of the team and I think the coaches had the executive decision why do you think that they chose you um well we had the opportunity to give a speech and in my speech I talked a lot about inclusivity and wanting
To um break down barriers in the team like that was separating us into different friend groups and work together and like feel a sense of unity this year and I think that played a factor and also since I join the team I’ve spent a lot of time like becoming
Friends with people on the team in like different ways so I’m grateful that I’ve been able to build those lasting relationships with people of a team uh can you tell me a little bit more about the barriers between different groups on the team that you talked about in speech
Yeah I think it’s kind of a natural thing that happens in a lot of sports teams or even like classes which probably like everyone has experienced where people kind of stick with like two or three friends and they don’t really talk to anyone else and I think inherently there’s nothing wrong with
That but it can cause harm on a team where you have to work together and it also makes it harder for underclassmen or or those who aren’t really familiar with others on the team to feel included uh so in your speech how did you propose to solve this
Issue um so what we’ve been working on is grouping up team members with people they don’t usually talk to during practices and I talked about team bonding events such as team dinners to authentically get to know each other better as people so have you been leading these efforts yes with Lauren
Who’s the Vice Captain and I definitely appreciate her lot uh when did you start um planning these events and helping go with that it’s been an ongoing process since the beginning of the year um and we’re working on planning our first team dinner right now which has been kind of
Challenging with everyone’s busy schedules during first semester but we’re working it out okay and what are you looking forward to the most about this team dinner um I think it’ll be a good chance to meet freshman especially um I’ve already like gotten the chance to talk to most
Of them but since every year there’s new members on the team it’s really helpful to just have an event where everyone can be relaxed and talk to another and another and to these new members on their team who might have been who might be in the same position that you were in
Um what advice would you give to them probably just don’t think about quitting like gu it because it’s not just about being good at the sport it’s about being a good team player and enjoying the sport do you think that you’ve improved a lot since you first joined yes
Definitely so other than planning these events what does being a golf Captain entail I think like I said in my speech being a golf Captain entails maintaining that sense of unity in the team and getting to know each individual member and and supporting them if they’re struggling or also uplifting them how
Can a sense of unity improve a golf team I think everyone performs better when they feel supported and a sense of Unity on the team and having those bonds between different members of the team creates that support it allows us to reach our maximum potential as individuals so how are you planning to
Connect to like those freshmen you haven’t really gotten the chance to talk to you yet I think the best way to connect to underclassman is just to not exclude them and get to know them as people and I know a lot of upper classman like look down on other
Classmen because they feel they feel like Generations away but they’re really only a couple years younger and I think they need support more than anyone else since this is a completely new experience for them it’s unfamiliar how are you going to like impart that message that like the under
Classmen and upper classmen aren’t like too different I think like I said like breaking up those groups since usually people um tend to talk to and associate with people in their grade levels and I think it’s good to talk to people that have different experiences from you and are different
Grades uh so how is your experience as a captain on the golf team been different from your experience as just a normal member I think being Captain gives me a little bit more control over how I can achieve my goals and the goals of the team and when I was
A member of the team we didn’t have a captain because we had a different coach so there was kind of a different system so in a sense it doesn’t feel that different for me because I haven’t really been like promoted to position it’s just different um so what are some of the
Other structural changes that came with having new coaches um well we all really like the coach that we have now coach boette and I think he’s done a really good job and we also definitely miss coach Hill and I think overall like the structure of practices and such have been
Similar but recently we put a little bit more effort into planning things out like for example our float from the homecoming parade was a lot more deliberately planned this year than it was past Year’s so is it your job to kind of like coordinate these events and
Lead this change I would say so yes and are there other areas of change that you’re hoping to have for the golf team I mean objectively I guess just to improve as a team and I know West Golf struggled a lot in previous years because we’ve had a lot of different
Coaches and like every couple of years we’ve switched which has made it kind of Rocky for new members of the team but we’re hoping that with a lot of new underclassman joining we’re going to grow the golf program as a whole what are you hoping that the new team will look like after
You’re gone I mean I think realistically um that kind of change would occur over a long period of time so like a lot of years and I think that just requires a lot of dedicated members which I can definitely see already joining every year and putting an effort to reach those
Goals looking back on her personal experiences with golf Brandy hopes to facilitate an increase in connection support and positivity within the team
