Andi Fisher had a few words for her coach as the Signal Mountain girls’ golf team left the state championship course with the big trophy in the car last year.
She told Wes Moore, “‘I’m going to win you a state championship next year and be the one that matters,'” Moore said. “We had a reminding of that conversation a couple weeks ago.”
Fisher has a chance to make her words ring true this week. The Lady Eagles and the Notre Dame boys’ team will compete for Class A/AA state championships Tuesday and Wednesday at Willowbrook Golf Club in Manchester.
“We know what we’d like to do,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Fisher said. “This is the third year in a row we’ve been to state, so we’ve had some experiences up there.”
Signal Mountain had a great experience last year. Jordan Britt, now a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga freshman, led the Lady Eagles last year. Junior Sarah Dolmovich and sophomore Haley Davidson were on the squad with Fisher as the alternate.
Three of the four are looking to defend their title without last year’s Times Free Press player of the year.
“Maybe the other teams will be thinking, ‘They lost their senior,'” Davidson said. “What they really don’t know is that we’ll beat them.”
If so, Fisher will need to back up her words. As a golfer who has taken competition casually in the past, she’s “begging to care” as of late, Moore said.
Her 83 in the region tournament helped Signal Mountain beat Livingston Academy by eight shots.
“Playing better made me have more fun,” Fisher said. “I think my confidence has gotten better. And I see that by practicing, there is improvement.”
Both Signal Mountain and Notre Dame have experience at Willowbrook, the new state venue, and Coach Fisher hopes that helps against other region champions, including defending boys’ winner Christian Academy of Knoxville.
“It’s a familiar course to us,” Fisher said. “But I’ve been doing this too long to get too optimistic, because it’s golf and they’re teenagers.”