The 19th Hole: A Look Back at This Year’s Golf Journey
Another Peoria Christian Gold Season has concluded with another Regional Championship! Coach Jason Miller led his squad to a Regional Championship for the fourth time under his leadership. The Senior laden squad won the Region Championship by eight strokes! At Sectionals the team fell just a few strokes short of qualifying for State with Senior Tait Miller missing the individual cut by only one stroke.
Winning Championships is fun. Making deep postseason runs is exciting. However, Coach Miller’s goal this season was not just to win tournaments and trophies. Yes, those are wonderful accomplishments. But the trophies and plaques will one day collect dust and potentially be an afterthought. The memories, the relationships, and most importantly, the seeds of the Gospel planted by this team will not be.
Coach instilled in this group a desire to not only play the game of golf differently but to live their faith out to be a light for Christ on and off the links. Miller shared, “The highlights of the season outside of championships would be just watching our boys play golf the right way, interacting with other players in a Christ like manner, cheering them on even during competition. Golf is a special sport in that you have an opportunity to compete against another player and still encourage and cheer for them when they make a good shot or have a good round. I witnessed our guys doing that often.”
Miller gives a lot of credit to his assistant coach, Jason Gama for helping him infuse a growing faith within the program. Coach Miller and Coach Gama started coaching together eight years ago when this senior class were just fifth graders. The two initially paired up coaching Middle School basketball for four seasons before spending four years together on the golf course. Miller said of his friend and assistant, “I’ve had a lot of different assistants over the years but Coach Gama is best. I would say we have worked well together and have had a lot of fun doing it. He is such a great encourager, his energy lifts the kids up. He is always so intentional about pointing them to Christ and reminding them of finding a Jesus centered focal point.” He continued, “Having his knowledge of the game has also been a game changer for our program. He has been great with strategy and swing coaching and just being a cheerleader for our players.”
It is not just Coach Gama that will be transitioning out. A special class of seniors now pass the torch on to the next group of leaders. Peoria Christian has been blessed with a lot of great golfers over the years which has allowed the program to always have high expectations and goals. Not every team can have a legitimate goal of going to state and competing at that level. The senior class of Drew Gama, Ian Durst, and Tait Miller carried the torch incredibly well. They are special group on and off the course.
This year also concludes a special four years in which Coach Miller had the privilege to coach his son, Tait. Coach Hynek and Coach Persinger cant attest that it is not always easy coaching your son. But, there are numerous blessings that come along with that privelge. This is especially true in a senior season. It is an emotional rollercoaster with excitement and dread. Excitement to get started, but the dread of knowing the end of a chapter is near.
When asked about the emotions of thie chapter closing Coach Miller allowed transparency to flow, “Golf has always been something Tait and I have shared since he was really young. Being able to see him improve immensely over four years has been so special. I’m not sure I’ve seen the amount of improvement from the beginning to the end like I’ve seen in Tait from any player before. I won’t say it’s easy to be both dad and coach, especially with a score driven game like golf, but it has always been special. I know many don’t get the opportunity I’ve had to be with him for countless shots during competition. To experience the ups and downs up close, to walk through shots and strategy during the round, to have so much success together is so special.” Miller concluded, “I had tears in my eyes as he approached that final green, knowing this was most likely it. He and I had a special moment together as he walked off that green that I won’t forget. Seeing him miss state by one stroke was hard, maybe harder on me than him. He battled so hard on that last day to get there. He held his composure so well. In the end, what I think was most impressive was his attitude after the miss, He told me ““it’s ok it wasn’t God’s will.””
Although this season has concluded the bonds and friendships forged through golf will continue to grow. A great thing about sports is the bonds we form through them. There is no doubt that the No doubt I will miss seeing Jason on the course with us (and having other coaches and parents mistake the two of us), but we have all built bonds that will last a lifetime because of athletics. So, maybe this not just an end of an era but the start of another one.