Penn-Trafford girls golf off to strong start in promising season

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, September 15, 2018 | 3:27 PM

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When Lauren Barber was 3, she starting tagging along with her dad, Tony, to the driving range to hit golf balls.

Ava Green grew up near the The Club at Blackthorne in Jeannette, playing there often in her youth with her father, Chad.

Barber and Green have similar backgrounds of growing up with fathers who played high school golf, and now they are helping carry on the tradition of strong play for the Penn-Trafford girls program.

The Warriors are off to a 6-0 start in Section 3-AAA and vying to qualify for the WPIAL team postseason for a 12th consecutive season.

“I remember going to the range when I was young, so it’s been 11 years I’ve been playing already,” Barber said. “I started playing four days a week about four years ago, so that’s when I really started buckling down on my game. I also started taking lessons from Dennis Munko. He’s helped me improve on hitting the ball farther to help me dominate the shorter courses.”

“My dad and I play as much as we can together (at Blackthorne), and we’re members at Greensburg Country Club, so we play there, too,” Green said.

Barber, a sophomore, has averaged a score of 39 through six matches, shooting in the 30’s in four of six matches. Green, a senior, has averaged 41 with a season-best score of 38, which came against Franklin Regional.

Barber placed fourth at the Westmoreland County Coaches Association tournament Sept. 5 at Champion Lakes Golf Course and Green finished sixth.

Both of them said they have more confidence this year, and it’s led to lower scores.

Barber admitted she was unaware of Penn-Trafford’s playoff streak before to joining the team last year, but she’s hopeful they can keep it going this year.

“I knew about Amanda (Conner), but besides that I was kind of going into it blind,” Barber said. “It’d be great to continue that and make the playoffs again this year. We have a strong team, and the seniors have improved tremendously over the years. I think we have a good chance of going.”

Seniors Haley Pearsol, Karah Thatcher and Lana Callaghan and junior Skylar Jefairjain have all been in the five-person starting lineup providing depth that’s helped Penn-Trafford shoot under 180 as a team in all but one match. Pearsol shot a season-best score of 41 against Norwin.

“We have five competent players in our lineup every time, and some teams don’t have five, so that gives us an advantage,” Penn-Trafford coach Ed Herbst said. “We get four scores out of the five, and for us, you never know where that fourth score is coming from.”

Herbst is in his 15th season coaching the team and has been around for all of the previous success, which includes back-to-back WPIAL titles in 2012 and ’13.

He coached ninth-grade baseball and basketball at North Allegheny and Gateway before becoming a teacher in the Penn-Trafford School District. He didn’t have any visions of coaching again until he received a phone call about his current position while, oddly enough, on a summer golf trip in California.

“I was on the golf course when (former Penn-Trafford athletic director Roger Sullivan) called me and said that he was looking for a golf coach,” Herbst said. “He said it was a short season and that I’d only have six or so girls on the team. He kind of talked me into it, and I’m glad he did.

“I always have great kids that are a joy to be around. I don’t have many problems at all, and on top of that we’ve been fortunate to be a successful program. It’s been fun for me.”

Penn-Trafford placed fourth at the WPIAL finals last season. Green wants to help the team improve on that finish and possibly contend for a PIAA berth in her final season.

“I’m happy with where we are at now, and I think we will do well this year, hopefully like we have done in the years before,” Green said. “It would be awesome to finish top three or higher, because the top two moves on to the next level. That would be our goal, just to be better than last year.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn-Trafford