North Allegheny girls golfers chasing individual, team success

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, September 25, 2021 | 11:01 AM

Previous Next

Many of the golfers on North Allegheny’s girls team already have their own swing instructors, so first-year coach Sarah Morrison tries not to tinker much with their mechanics.

Instead, the attorney and former college golfer has turned her attention to their thoughts between shots.

“My biggest focus with them this year has been all about their mental game,” said Morrison, a Beaver graduate who competed for Youngstown State. “Especially for high school girls golfers, the game is 90% mental. I think our team scores have shown that. On the days they are mentally tough, we score really, really well. And on the days that they’re not quite so mentally tough, we struggle a little bit.”

The team has had far more good days than bad this year. The Tigers won 12 of their first 13 outings behind junior Katie Rose Rankin, senior Sissi Hai, junior Lauren Kardos and sophomores Megan Manesiotis and Amber Roth. That marks a significant turnaround from last season’s 6-5 record, but Morrison deflects any credit from herself.

“I don’t swing the golf clubs,” she said, “so that credit goes all to them.”

Rankin, a two-time winner earlier this summer on the Tri-State PGA’s junior tour, has been North Allegheny’s low scorer this season. Her average was around 41, including a season-best 37 at Diamond Run, the team’s new home course.

She placed 20th in the WPIAL Class 3A individual championship last fall, a finish she could improve upon in this year’s tournament Oct. 7 at Hannastown Golf Club in Greensburg. Hannastown was the site of one of her two summer circuit wins.

“She’s really been the rock for our team and has been really consistent all year,” Morrison said. “She’s got a lot of really good, raw talent, so we’re hoping for a state run with her.”

Along with possible individual medals, North Allegheny hopes to contend for another WPIAL team title. The Tigers own 10 and won four in a row from 2015-18. They missed the team finals last fall after finishing second in 2019.

This year’s team finals are Oct. 14 at Cedarbrook Golf Course in Belle Vernon.

Morrison credits Hai as a senior leader whose focus is team success. Hai is talented enough to play in college, said her coach, but competitive golf isn’t in her long-term plans even though she’s broken 40 this year.

“She doesn’t really have a big interest in playing college golf which breaks my heart,” Morrison said. “But she loves the games and loves being on the team. Her focus is really how far can we take the team? As a coach, you have to be excited for that.”

Morrison first learned the North Allegheny job was open through her husband Adam Morrison, the head golf pro at Diamond Run. He had given private golf lessons to some of the NA players since they were 8 or 9 years old.

Once hired, she then used her connections at Diamond Run to secure tee times there for most of her team’s home matches. The team had previously used Pittsburgh North.

“I’ve always kind of jokingly said it would be fun to coach a girls golf team,” Morrison said. “I never truly played on a high school girls golf team because my school didn’t have a girls team.”

Morrison, with the last name Scheidemante, was a two-time WPIAL championship qualifier at Beaver even though the Bobcats didn’t have a girls golf team. She competed for two seasons on the school’s boys team before playing alongside Center’s girls team as an individual golfer her junior and senior years.

As a former WPIAL competitor, Morrison can relate well to the mental hurdles her golfers face.

“Every conversation with them is all about, if you hit a bad shot, you move on to the next hole,” she said. “You started out bad, you turn your scorecard over and you start fresh. I don’t care if that’s the fifth or sixth hole, but it’s all about that mental toughness.”

“If you can be mentally tough, you can overcome any bad shot or any bad round you have.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Allegheny