The Seaforth Hawks, by all accounts, weren’t supposed to have this much success in their inaugural golf season. Around campus, teams from men’s tennis to women’s soccer had strong showings in Seaforth’s first year. Men’s golf should be firmly on that list.
With five players on the roster — three who’d barely picked up a club before joining the team — the Hawks crushed it, taking the top spot in their first match against county foes Chatham Central and Jordan-Matthews. While they found themselves near the middle of the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference pack by the end of the year, the Hawks had plenty to show for their first season on the course, including two state qualifiers in freshmen Griffin Ching (T-11th, +14) and Gray Stewart (T-44th, +31).
This week, the News + Record spoke with Jason Lee, former men’s golf head coach at Seaforth, to discuss the challenges of starting a program, the perseverance of his freshmen and the potential of the entirety of this youthful Hawks roster. Since the conclusion of the season, Lee has moved on to become the golf pro at Falls Village Golf Club and will no longer be coaching Seaforth, which is on the hunt for its next men’s golf coach.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
JASON LEE: The first couple practices of the year were just to see who we’ve got that’s interested in the program and who’s willing to play for the next couple of years. The first two seasons are mainly just to grow, just to get our program started off the ground, so we weren’t really looking to compete as much as we did this year, but, obviously, it worked out. We had two great players, Griffin Ching, who was Mid-Carolina Conference Player of the Year, and Gray Stewart, who was a great No. 2. They both made it to states, so they kind of helped the team get started. They already had a little bit of experience with playing golf, playing tournaments, as well, so they kind of helped get off to a strong start.
I was completely unsure because the girls’ season passed in October and I wasn’t involved in the girls team, but then when November or December came around, Jason Amy — Seaforth’s athletic director — reached out because I was the head golf pro at The Preserve at Jordan Lake right across the street and asked me to be the head coach. Originally, I wasn’t even sure if anyone would have a full roster to compete or anything, and we’d just say, “We started this off, let’s get on a good note,” but then luckily, we had kids come out and had five on the roster all season.
Our season started in February and went on until about late May, including states. Our first match was with us, Chatham Central, Jordan-Matthews and two other schools in our conference. We actually finished in first place in our first match ever. It was pretty awesome. We were like, “If this is how we’re going to start the season with such a young team, such a young program, from the get-go, we could look forward to something like this.” And then from then on, it’s just the kids learning how to play in tournament situations. We had a couple of second- and third- place finishes, we never got last. Every week we had a match, then we had a spring break bye week. Every week, the kids were out there four to five times a week, practicing Monday through Thursday. For a majority of the team, they had very limited experience in playing the game, so it was just mainly for them to get exposure, getting over the learning curve for this season.
Luckily, it’s just kind of my background. I’ve played at a lot of different levels. I’ve been playing the game of golf since I was about 7 years old. I played at junior level, high school and then played college golf down in Atlanta, so I’ve had a lot of exposure playing tournaments, playing at a fairly higher level and it just kind of helped me figure out what to do and what not to do with young players, kind of like what I did when I was growing up, and use that experience to help them and guide them on the right path, if they’re interested, for the long term.
Obviously, with two freshmen and a sophomore that weren’t as experienced, we had a lot of growing to do. It was mainly in range sessions, making sure we get the fundamentals down, not really worrying about the good shots or the bad shots, but worrying about the good shots as they come and just kind of progress from there. Building confidence is a huge part of the game, so as the kids start seeing a lot and hitting better shots at the range, that kind of translates to the course. They did a great job. They worked at it, starting from 3:30 to 6 p.m., rain or shine. It was mainly on them; I just helped provide the guidelines for them to succeed.
Griffin had a little bit more on-course confidence because he’s played in a bunch of tournaments. The great thing for him, being with the team, was that it kind of brought him out of his social shell. He was a little bit more of an introverted, quiet kid, but as the season progressed, they got to know one another, they competed with each other and they just formed better friendships, better relationships. That kind of helped him grow, instead of in more of a golf way, it helped him grow as a person. It got him out of his shell, taught him how to meet new people, talk to new people.
Then, for Gray, he came in with a lot of confidence as a person, but vice versa, on the course his experience was kind of lacking a little bit, so he kind of had a lot of self doubt. For all of them, as they progress, as they keep practicing and as they win rounds, especially Gray and Griffin, they’re playing better and shooting better scores. You could see their confidence rising each week.
It was a year-long preparation. Griffin, even without me there, he would always practice. He put in the time and effort to get to that place. It paid off, all the work that he put in throughout the whole season. And at the biggest stage for him currently at the high school state level, he performed the best he could. He’s a 14-year-old kid competing with 17-18-year-olds out there, so I think he did great and it shows the potential of what he can do in upcoming years.
Then, for Gray, he’s fairly green, fairly inexperienced, so him proving it to himself was one of the biggest accomplishments he did at states. He proved to himself that he could go out, not play great, and still make it to states and then perform at states, at the highest level. It just shows the potential that both of them have to really be successful at the game.
Ever since I’ve been around the game, I’ve seen so many kids with talent at a young age that kind of get complacent and that’s kind of my hope for them is that they don’t realize that, “OK, this is good enough,” and to keep practicing so they can keep progressing to the junior and senior level. I want them to look back and say, “I was so bad, I was such a bad golfer, but I still made it to states, so how much better can I actually get?” That’s really my goal for them.