Dream becomes reality for Ulmer, Williamsville
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville East senior Lauren Latona putts prior to the team's match with Buffalo Seminary last Friday at Westwood Country Club. Looking on are senior teammates Emily Williams, far left, and Katie Saffire. Williamsville is the first Section VI school district to field a varsity girls gold team. Photo by Joe Eberle

All Katie Saffire ever wanted to do before she graduated from Williamsville East was to play on a girls golf team and thanks to a number of people who love the sport, the senior will be able to fulfill a dream.

Williamsville became the first Section VI school district to field a girls golf team. The team will play six non-league matches against Monsignor Martin Athletic Association schools this fall. As of this writing, Williamsville is 1-1 after defeating Buffalo Seminary, 304-336, last Friday and losing to Mount St. Mary's, 282-268 on Monday.

"It's exciting," said Saffire, who was one of three girls to practice with the East boys golf team last year. "I can't say I thought it would happen this year but I'm glad that it did because it's my senior year. It's really fun."

"I liked how they finally decided to get a girls golf team together because I've been waiting for one," added teammate Lauren Latona, another East senior. "I didn't want to play with the guys because I wanted it to be more relaxed."

Saffire, Latona, and East senior Emily Williams will captain the team. Saffire has the most competitive tournament experience. Joining them will be East's Samantha Brightenfield, Elizabeth Chestnut, Erin Giangreco, Chelsea Neubecker, and Emily Losterman, South's Cassie Cecchini and Katie Darnley, and North's Caitlin Curry. All are freshmen except Curry, a sophomore.

Betsy Ulmer, one of three Williamsville coaches, said no cuts will be made for the foreseeable future because the end goal is to have each Williamsville school field a team.

"It's also an opportunity to teach the sport," said Ulmer, who will be joined by Bob Rosen, North's varsity hockey coach and a talented golfer at Westwood Country Club, Williamsville's home course, and Steve Delisanti, South's varsity girls bowling coach.

The team will be allowed, based on number of matches, to participate in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Girls Golf Championships. The inaugural tournament was held June 5 at Foxfire Golf Course in Baldwinsville, N.Y.

Ulmer has been the driving force behind getting Williamsville a team. It was Ulmer who has run a pilot program the last two springs at the Wehrle Golf Dome with pro Cindy Miller for girls grades 6-12 (ECIC Girls Golf Club) with the purpose of developing players for a high school varsity girls golf team. It was Ulmer who called Monsignor Martin High School Athletic Association Executive Director Brian Kiszewski last spring to see if he was interested in having the ECIC play against the MMAA. Kiszewski then met with Ulmer and Williamsville District Athletic Director Dr. Jim Rusin, who also showed interest, and the two sides agreed to make it happen. Rusin is the Section VI girls golf chair.

"It's a dream come true," said Ulmer, who five years ago founded the WNYPGA Junior Girls Golf Tour and has been instrumental in obtaining an individual girls' division in the Buffalo District Friday Interclub league the last three years. "It's something I've been looking towards for maybe 10 years when I realized there was really a need for girls golf in the area."

"It's something that serves a void," said Rosen. "It gives them an opportunity to compete and play for. The girls that we have are very enthusiastic. It's great."

Ulmer said the biggest issue faced was that none of the public high schools had a girls golf team and in order for a girl to compete they had to tee it up with the boys.

"That's inherently intimidating so needless to say many girls didn't even make that attempt," she said. "A few have fallen in love with the sport and liked the challenge and were willing to tee it up with the boys but those are very few and far between."

Girls have played on Section VI boys teams before. Examples include Clarence's Lindsay Cornell, Orchard Park's Kelsey Johnson, and Grand Island's Ashleigh Frieday. Williamsville South's Natalie Wisniewski currently plays for the South boys team. But there's never been a Section VI girls golf team until now.

Another issue faced was whether it should be played during the fall or spring season.

"Many of the existing golf teams that are out there felt that it needed to be a spring sport because there so many sports that compete in the fall and there are very few in the spring," she said. "I had concerns, number one, with the accessibility of golf courses in the spring, how short the season would be in May, and that the conditions would be less than stellar."

Ulmer said once more ECIC teams join, there is no intention of stopping matches against MMAA teams.

"We're committed to staying with the Monsignor Martin Association," Ulmer said. "Dr. Rusin made it very much a point that at no point in the future would we say 'OK, goodbye' because he felt that they are doing us a huge favor."

"I think it's great," said Sacred Heart girls golf coach Theresa Brady. "Betsy Ulmer has worked

so hard at getting golf into the public school for women. I'm excited to play them."

Ulmer said one concession is that only freshman through seniors are allowed to play because seventh or eighth graders do not attend MMAA schools.

Williamsville has been a trend setter for Section VI in other sports. Williamsville was the first school to join the Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation in 1990. The league now fields 13 schools.

"It worked well with hockey so I think what we'll be able to bring them is more competition," said Ulmer.

Despite it being the team's first year, Williamsville expects to be competitive.

"I think definitely in the next few years we'll do really well," said Latona. "This year, we'll compete with them very easily... We also want to have fun and to improve and all the coaches are really good in giving a lot of tips."

Williamsville 2006 Schedule 9-13 at Nardin (Cazenovia)...... 4 p.m. 9-15 at Mt. Mercy (Cazenovia) 4 p.m. 9-18 Sacred Heart (Audubon) . 4 p.m. 9-19 at Holy Angels (Grover Cleveland) .......................... 4 p.m.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com