GV girls golf team’s record streak honored

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Dec. 23, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

Green Valley High School coach Nick Garritano had a surefire way to lift the spirits of the girls on his golf team when they were down: He told them their hair looked good.

He shared that story during a spirited ceremony Sunday that was both lighthearted and serious, honoring 10 years of Gator teams for setting a national record with 132 wins in a row against other schools.

They passed the previous record of 128 in October, when they defeated Silverado.

The team began its winning streak in 1992, a feat that has attracted national attention, ranking 100th in Golf World magazine's list of the year's biggest stories in its December issue.

Seventeen of about 40 girls who were responsible for that record had the significance of it underscored for them Sunday at a reunion that doubled as an awards ceremony.

The 10 girls on this year's team were a part of history, Garritano said, and he had learned, after years of coaching boys in football and baseball, that "these girls worked as hard as any boy."

The Gators were part of a big year for women in golf nationally, with 21 stories on Golf World's list involving women, said Tim Murphy, the magazine's managing editor. The most controversial story, No. 1 on the list, involved the Augusta Golf Club and its refusal to let women play.

"This year, women have raised the prospect of opening the door a little," Murphy said. And the Las Vegas team's feat, he said, was "a punch line to a sequence of events."

The idea of being a part of something bigger than a high school golf team -- especially one that hadn't lost in a decade -- caught 17-year-old senior and co-captain Lindsay Beckstead off guard.

"I hadn't really thought about it up till now," she said. "It's surreal, I guess."

Then she added, "It's kind of like women being able to vote. ... Maybe this is a small part of a bigger picture."

Beckstead, who is deciding whether to continue playing golf at Oregon State University next year, said setting the record has transformed her personally. She suffered as a girl for being a tomboy, she said.

"I would always get razzed by the boys for playing baseball," she said. "Now even the guys from the golf team recognized us. That's a change in my life."

Del Sagers, who coached the team from 1990 to 1998, said he saw the young women who passed through the last decade's teams as part of a trend in sports.

"Women in sports as a whole have put themselves on the map, and golf is now following suit," he said.

Five of his former players are now playing for college teams, he said, though none has yet turned professional.

One of the early players to move the team's record forward was at the ceremony Sunday. Stacie Manning, 23, played from 1993 to 1997.

Manning watched her 2-year-old, Makenzie, race through the halls of Henderson's Legacy Golf Club, site of the event, as reporters sought her attention.

Though Manning has not continued playing golf, she hopes her daughter picks up the game, which she said runs in her family.

When asked about the year's sequence of stories, ranging from the Augusta Golf Club's closed-door policy to the Gators' record, she said she "feels like a part of something."

As for Augusta, she said the men could have their club, and that women should start their own. "We should go start a women's golf club. Why not? Then men will want to play with us, and we won't let them."

The "something" she feels a part of, she said, might help her daughter by the time the girl reaches her age.

"I think it's paved the way for her, and she'd have an easier time."

Garritano, when asked about Augusta, had a different take from his school's former player.

"I think it would be great if they could play at Augusta," he said. "I've learned that amount of respect from these kids."