Rocky Varsity Girls Golf are 3x State Champs as of now! On October 7th and 8th, the golf team consisting of Emry Gibbs (Senior), Jane Barry (Junior), Anna Dabell (Junior), Maggie Urian (Freshman), and Natalie Nichenko (Freshman) won 1st place in the 2022 Fall Girls Highschool Golf State Championship. They crushed their opponents by 46 points for the win!  

The Golf State Championship was hosted by Middleton and took place at Titan Lakes Golf Course in Rexburg, Idaho. On October 6th, the team drove up together with their head coach, Jonathan Gibbs, and were led by him and assistant coach, Craton Fuss. The girls were all very excited to compete and enjoy some team bonding over the trip. With the car decorated and bags packed, the road to victory had begun.  

When I interviewed the team on if they thought they were going to win or not, Maggie responded, “Yeah, did, I knew that our team was in great shape and that we were prepared.”  

Emry explained further, “Yes, we did, we knew from the beginning of the season that we were going to dominate. We won all but one of tournaments throughout the season. The only team that was close to us was Bishop Kelly, but they are 4A.”  

Maggie can’t recall how she felt the first day of competing. However, the second day she felt really frustrated in the beginning because she wasn’t playing the best, even though it didn’t feel like it, but later her attitude was boosted when she started playing better. Emry said that at first, she was relaxed and playing her regular game but the second day she could feel the pressure since it was such a heated and close competition to win first place individually. Even though as a team she was confident in the win, it was still an intense round that taught her a lot of lessons. Maggie thought that Timberline or Boise was their main competition at State while Emry expressed deeper that Mountain View, a 5A team, was a main competitor even though Rocky was still a solid 20-30 strokes ahead of them all season. She also went on to state that Rocky beat Bishop Kelly by only a few strokes throughout the season, but BK is a 4A team.  

When asked about their 3x State Championship win, Maggie stated, “This year I’m a freshman so this was my first high school state but being able to carry on the winning streak for our school and team felt really good.” 

 Emry commented, “It is such an amazing feeling to know that we are a strong team. It brings a lot of pressure off us when we play. We are one of the only sports that has won more than 2 state championships in a row. We are in second place with the most state championship behind track.” Maggie and Emry both explained that it was so important to win for Emry’s senior year to graduate on a high note with another state championship win to conclude her high school career.   

Since the season is over now, the team will continue to practice in their new indoor facility and are ready to keep the winning streak going. Specifically, Maggie wants to stay consistent so that incoming freshman won’t feel pressure and can rely on her. After their incredible win, the girls were sprayed with water by their coaches. Also, they went to Culver’s to celebrate on the long drive back to Meridian where later, a party was held to sign the banner and commemorate an awesome and fun season. There was so much hard work put into the girls’ game this season that paid off. They practiced, prepared, and studied courses to secure their well-deserved win.