Scrapbooks, News Clippings & NO SELFIES: Archiving My HCRHS "RED DEVILS" Varsity Girls Golf Team Family

I (aka Coach Lydia) have  been spending a lot of post-accident time archiving the golf coaching part of my LIFE!! 

SO FUN to look back through scrapbooks & (gulp!) newspaper clippings (remember those???) 

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED coaching all of you.

Have fun looking back. And as requested, I will post more scans as I complete them. Enjoy!

SCANNED PHOTOS FROM OUR HCRHS TEAM SCRAPBOOKS

--more to com--where are YOU in this team photo?

NO CELL PHONE SELFIES THEN, WHAT???!!!!

My point in writing this blog tonight was to tell all of you, young & Young-at-heart, female & male about this AWESOME book : BE A PLAYER by Pia Nilsson & Lynn Marriott!

In February 2006, Coach Lydia (that's me)attended a 3-day Vision 54 clinic with Pia Nilsson & Lynn Marriott. 

TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!

LPGA pro Gail Graham was just one of the FANTABULOUS attendees in our group--- myself included (kneeling, second from left)

I employed Vision54 techniques into my golf program during my third year coaching (I started the high school varsity girls golf program when I was hired in 2004--the first in Hunterdon County) Hunterdon Central Regional varsity girls golf team.

You can checkout the numbers here https://girlsgogolfing.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

• Creating happy golfers is easy when you commingle it with creating happy humans.

• Happy humans who became part of their local fabric by collecting food for the Flemington Food Pantry at the annual Red Devil Invitational (18 holes) and Food Drive. Part of the participating school's entry fee was canned or non-perishable items! 18 years later we are still going strong! LPGA golf pro & New Jersey's own MARINA ALEX was the RED DEVIL Champion in 2006.!!! 
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• 2007 was a great year for my Hunterdon Central Regional high school varsity girls golf team golf team. Our record was, wait for it: 17 WINS & 0 Losses!!!!!!

• Happy humans who collected over 2,000 dollars for the 2big hearts foundation by putting with courage from their heart during the Get Red for Birdies & Redder for Eagles campaign. We QUADRUPLED the amount of birdies made during the first season! And it grew from there in both birdies (54 birdies in my final coaching season) and approximately 12,000+ amount collected!

Even though 2006 was year four of battling a "mystery" chronic illness (like you read about in the NYT medical mystery column, seriously) it turned out to be a Vector Borne Disease! 

Bartonella bacteria (2 types) attached to the outside of my red blood cells and a hybrid bacteria 1/2malaria & 1/2 parasitic worm wrapped in a biofilm inside my red blood cells. 

• IT FORCED me to step back: from competing as an amateur golfer (almost immediately in 2003, I started to WD from tournaments & playdates with friends, from full-time head coaching (June,2010), then assistant coaching (June, 2014) & finally (in November, 2011)stopped volunteering with my Girls Go Golfing junior girls golf program which was a "feeder" program for the high school team along with teaching LOTS of girls about the sport outside of the school's sending area (girls came from Newark's First Tee program, Princeton, West Windsor-North & South, Bridgewater and Montgomery school districts) after our 4th season concluded as the 3-hour round trip commute was impossible to manage-- I needed to take the time (translation: lots of road trips to Cleveland Clinic:you get the idea) and FIND SOME RELIEF! 
• After lotsa looking around, and outside-the-box alternative medical treatment requiring another 38 months of toughing it out, I found some relief at the same Lancaster clinic WNBA's Elena Delle Donne gets treated for her chronic Lyme. 
• And TEAM LYDIA that's code for JOHNNY, the best partner /husband in the world and I finally got some improvement! Not a cure by any means but definite improvement. 

FYI: although I did not "look" sick to the outside observers: inside I felt like I was trapped underneath  one million garbage bags wrapped around my body, the real me wanted to get out but it was impossible as something seemed to be pressing me down. I went from being an "energizer Bunny" type to a fatigued, pain-ridden mess. I tried to do what I needed to do to get through each day.

Smiling GGGers with Coach Lydia 

I did not want to disappoint all the GGG youngsters (ages 6 through 18) nor did I want to leave the highs school varsity girls golf program I began in 2004.

• --at its conclusion GGG had over 100 participants registered. Girls came from ALL over New Jersey--even as far as NEWARK!
• --I was proud of what husband & BEST LIFE-PARTNER EVER! had supported me creating  but sad to put the program on (what I was hoping was a brief) hiatus
• When I could not find an entity to take it over, of course it was a VOLUNTEER effort requiring 2 nights per week, 4-5 hours, twice per week, for 6-8 weeks along with some at-home organizing ( and once we moved to PA from NJ it was an added 3 hour roundtrip commute time now, that's DEDICATION!!!)--it turned into (4) year break. 
• GGG was slated to reboot in August, 2016 but I was a victim of a traumatic accident in December, 2015  :you can read about it here

SO , for now, I am remaining UNDAUNTED and REFUSING to ALLOW circumstances outside of my control to define me and my capabilities.

I must be content with scanning photos and posting memories of some really fun & cool times advocating for GIRLS to GET GOLFING in Hunterdon County (there are 5 total high schools in the county & only 1 girls golf team!)

Former LYD-golf camper, GGG participant, HCRHS varsity girls golf team member Radhika Ragam says this about golf & her  experience as a junior in GGG & as a member of the HCRHS varsity girls golf team (2 years with me as head coach & then 2 years under Head Coach Bobby Nicolson who took over for me as I became a volunteer assistant.):

In my experience, all I've felt I've needed was an equal playing field to showcase my abilities. 

Women are often overlooked, dismissed or simply not even thought of when it comes to traditionally "male" dominated fields of interest. 

But that doesn't mean we are not as capable. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunities and the resources to be a part of one of the best high school girls golf teams in the state. 

It became my passion, my hobby, my fun fact in classes, and the main topic of discussion during many of my college and even medical school interviews. 

It taught me discipline, leadership, and teamwork. I've even been asked by my colleagues, both male and female, to teach them how to play and provide them with tips. 

If I didn't have the chance to be a part of a girls golf team in high school, I probably would not have delved as deep into the sport as I have. 

Golf is something that makes me unique, that earned me a lot of respect, and something that I will continue to practice throughout my life. 

I think every girl should have the chance to join a high school girls golf team, to have the opportunity to experience the same things that I did, to learn similar lessons and skills, and to have golf impact and empower them in more ways than one.

Thank you, Radhika!