GILBERT, Ariz. — A couple of years ago, when Williams Field High School built a field house next to the football stadium, Rick Miles, the only boys golf coach the school has had since it opened, kept asking athletic director Darrell Stangle, “Where’s the golf room?”
Miles was given the field house’s storage room, where golf carts were going to be stationed.
“He showed it to me and I was like, ‘Done, we’ll take it,’ ” Miles said.
Once just concrete flooring and brick walls, Miles got help from players and parents to paint the room the school colors opf red and black. A student painted the Black Hawks logo on the wall. Turf was added with the big screen that features Torrey Pines for the simulator.
“I did some serious fundraising,” Miles said. “Here we are. It’s only one day. But it’s a start.”
Every Monday, this is Williams Field’s golfers’ practice facility. The 10 boys golfers get out of class, walk over to the field house, pull out their clubs, and go to work, driving shots into the screen. There also is a big hitting net outside into which they rocket shots. A putting green was added this summer behind the field house.
Groups of three, three and four golfers alternate from station to station, including the weight room. This has been helpful during a season in which Williams Field’s home golf course isn’t available due to overseeding.
“It’s fun to know how far you hit it,” Carr said. “It’s very accurate. You’re getting right numbers. It’s also fun to take a driver and hit it and know the exact distance it will go.”
Williams Field’s boys golf team captured its first Division II state golf championship in 2021. This year, unable to use its home course due to overseeding, the school has been helped by Ocotillo Golf Club in Chandler and Toka Sticks Golf Club in Mesa a couple of days a week.
Miles isn’t a certified teaching pro, but he does the best he can with technology to give kids what they need to be the best they can be. Top golfers have their own swing coaches. Carr calls Miles a great “strategist.”
Miles also knows how to fundraise. He said winning state two years ago helped. It gave people more incentive to donate. The simulator room with all the bells and whistles, Miles said, ended up costing about $16,000.
Williams Field isn’t the only high school that has a golf simulator room. Brophy Prep, a private Jesuit school in central Phoenix, has two golf rooms. But it doesn’t have a…
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