One day before officially debuting as varsity golfers, La Habra High’s Janet Romero, Kira Cauley, Aurora Heuermann and Mandy Arriola take turns hitting golf balls through the September sky.
Practicing on this afternoon at the Fullerton Golf Course, the quartet is joined intermittently by teammates of varying skill and golf savvy. All golfers carry with them to the driving range a bucket of balls and a personalized golf bag. Their team shirts and visors arrived just the other day.
Within the hour, 15 girls will be hitting at once. No two shots will fly the same; some won’t fly at all.
From behind sunglasses, Cody Verdugo lends help where help is needed. But even he can’t see everything.
“Heaven forbid you miss one of their good shots,” he jokes. “And if they’re hitting good shots, then you get there and they start hitting bad shots, you’re the reaper.”
Here on a Wednesday afternoon, Verdugo is teaching novices fundamentals, hoping they remember it all the next day.
“Like you’re chopping wood,” he says to one girl.
“Just scoop it,” he says to another.
The mastermind behind La Habra’s new girls golf program, Verdugo never expected this inaugural season to be easy.
“I’m coaching a white-collar sport in a blue-collar town,” he said. “We don’t have many natural golfers, so we’re able to introduce a new sport to a group of people who otherwise wouldn’t have come across it. I have girls who’d never been to the driving range before, girls who didn’t have clubs.
“There’s a price to pay playing a new sport,” he continued. “But these girls grind. They know they need to practice in order to advance. We’re nowhere near where we’ll be in the future. But it’s a fantastic process to be a part of.”
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Verdugo is like most of his girls in that he also began golfing later than most.
After graduating from La Habra in 1992, the former three-sport letter winner became a member of Chapman’s inaugural football team in 1994. On Mondays – designated off-days, Vergudo said – he and teammates Curtis Robinson and Geoff Jones golfed.
Hooked, Verdugo’s weekly rounds doubled, tripled, quadrupled.
“Ever since my senior year,” he joked, “I’ve had a love-hate relationship with golf.”
Verdugo would graduate from Chapman and begin coaching football, track and boys golf at La Habra.
For seven years he coached three sports, choosing in the mid-2000s to exclusively coach the gentleman’s game. Verdugo’s four children gravitated to golf as a result; his son, now an eighth-grader, is likely to play golf at La Habra.
But what about his daughters?
Around this time last year, Verdugo began a girls golf club at his alma mater.
Word of mouth spread quickly, and 20 girls joined. Few brought with them experience other than an occasional summer round played years ago with fathers and grandfathers.
But everyone brought enthusiasm and purpose, Verdugo said.
“These girls had the chance to be part of something unique, to be part of something new at a school that’s been around for 50-plus years,” he said. “And these girls are really grinding. I’ve coached football teams here that’ve won CIF titles, had incredible success, and I’d say these girls are right up with those guys in terms of the type of athletes they are.
“They’re getting after it.”
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Verdugo turned the La Habra High campus into a nominal driving range last year.
He held daily practices on the school’s football field, and arranged mats and trash cans in the quad for chipping and short-game drills. Most of the girls used his clubs. Others used clubs some 40 or 50 years old.
Verdugo began by teaching proper grips. Here’s a club, here are the ways to hold it. Then, stances, body alignments and swing techniques. Tuck this elbow in. Keep both hands on the club all the way through. Eliminate all excess movements. The basics.
Athletic as they were, Verdugo found that most of his girls learned visually. Show them what to do, he thought, and let their athleticism take over.
The coach also abstained from using golf jargon, connecting with the girls instead by simplifying the game. “A lot of one-on-one work,” he said.
Verdugo can’t credit his boys team enough for its assistance last year. Without the boys’ help shagging balls, correcting mistakes and positively reinforcing good results, Verdugo believes the girls wouldn’t have come along so quickly.
“I’d never even played mini-golf before last year,” said Romero, a senior and softball convert who joined the club last year. “I had no idea how good I would be. But I stuck to it, and I guess I was pretty talented. I grinded, improved every day.”
Added Heuermann, a sophomore: “It was a little nerve-wracking at first because I’d never played before. But it was still fun.”
Many of Verdugo’s novices sought personal lessons in the summer. Some competed in open tournaments.
La Habra High girls golf is a sanctioned CIF program this year, joining Troy – an Orange County power coached by Verdugo confidant Jerry Cowgill – Fullerton, Sunny Hills and Buena Park in the Freeway League. Ten girls from last year’s club returned this fall, and Verdugo held tryouts to round out the roster.
Sixteen girls are divided into varsity, junior varsity and developmental teams.
No matter the level, “These girls have the drive to get better,” Verdugo said. And many of his developmental girls are already making strides, he said. The coach expects those players to contribute on varsity.
“These ladies know the value of hard work,” he said. “They aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.”
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In addition to learning how to play, Romero, Heuermann and others are learning the differences between course layouts. Many are also still learning how far they can hit with each club. How to read greens. Etiquette.
Typically, Verdugo said, coaches play behind their teams during matches. When La Habra plays, he watches, determined to find ways to help.
When not using the school’s football field, the Highlanders practice at three courses: Fullerton, La Mirada and Westridge.
Verdugo said he remembers seeing one of his girls forget to put a basket underneath a range ball dispenser. Most girls didn’t know the first thing about booking tee times.
“Golf is like a foreign language to these girls,” the coach said. “I stepped in your line? What line? Why do we have to pull the flag? That’s a penalty? And that’s just etiquette; that’s just the rules. That’s not even trying to hit a ball in front of you that’s not moving. I’ve seen great athletes that can’t do that properly.”
La Habra, in its varsity debut last week, beat Buena Park. Days later, the Highlanders beat Fullerton.
Verdugo knows his girls have a long way to go before competing with Sunny Hills and Troy. But from humble beginnings, the first-year program is already ahead of schedule.
“It’s been a lot of fun watching some of these girls grow the last couple of years,” said Arriola, a senior and perhaps Verdugo’s most experienced golfer. “I’m sort of upset that I can’t be here longer. But I’m happy to have been part of it. And excited to see where it goes from here.”
Contact the writer: 714-704-3790 or bwhitehead@ocregister.com
