Years ago, there was a poster created for Penn State athletics with a photo of a female gymnast standing back-to-back with a football player, the caption read, “It’s not the size of the Lion in the fight that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the Lion!”
Having watched many players compete through the years, I could not agree with this sentiment more. It is particularly heartwarming when you have watched one of your own players “fight” for a long time just to get a “chance” to be in the ring.
In our sport we only play five players on the team and sometimes one player gets to come along for the experience of competition as an individual. There are no substitutions from the “bench”. In golf, much like gymnastics and swimming you’re either in the lineup or you don’t participate at all. Taylor Waller came to Penn State and signed up to play on the team, not because she got a scholarship, but to be part of the team and hopefully get the chance to play at some point. In fact, she redshirted her first year knowing making the lineup would be a difficult task with several veteran players already in place. She was quiet, going about her business, doing what was asked, and never complaining that it was too much. She played in several summer tournaments with some success, however, generally frustrated that it never seemed to click on all three days of a tournament.
Those of us that play the game at any level can relate to the heartbreaks playing golf can give us. Three years have passed, along with two segments of those years canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She spent the good part of last spring traveling as the “individual” player, and only representing the team as the sixth player at the Big Ten Championships.
As can be typical in the fall, the start of our new season, we are searching for the five top players, so the lineup can change from week to week. This player had not made the top six to travel this fall, until this past tournament. I made the decision based on how players played on the road versus how players were doing at home. It was time to make a switch and it was time to put this Nittany Lion in the “fight”.
If you’ve ever had the experience of teaching a toddler to swim, you know the trepidation of watching them jump in the water and hoping they keep their head above the water. Or, when…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Penn State University Athletics…