Portell has what it takes for big junior year on the links
The Highland High School girls golf team does not return a large amount of experience and has less than 10 total team members, but the Lady Bulldogs could have a budding star in junior Rece Portell.
Portell will be the team leader after coming off a big sophomore season in which she qualified for the sectional before narrowly missing making the cut for the IHSA Girls State Golf Tournament. She fired a career-low nine-hole round of 38 this summer.
“Rece is going to be the leader of the team, and she backs it up with a great game,” said Highland veteran coach Gina Hirsch, who is in her 19th year at the helm. “She is smart on the golf course, and she has got great course management. She hits the ball a long way. For a little thing, she hits the ball far. She has really grown. She was starting as a freshman, but I have seen her really grow the last two years into a great golfer. And she’s really smart in that she catches on to things and remember things. That’s why Rece has been so good, she is so intelligent.”
After narrowly missing the cut for state last year, Portell went on to help two teams make history in the winter and spring. First, she helped the basketball Lady Bulldogs grab a historic third-place finish in Class 3A. Portell then capped her sophomore year by running a leg of the historic 4 x 800-meter relay team that captured the best medal in school history with a fourth-place finish.
“She comes in with a state mentality, and that’s going to carry her far,” Hirsch said of Portell. “With her athleticism and her mental state, she is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully with her experience being at the state basketball tournament and being at the state track meet, it gives her the mental and psychological edge that she needs to make that jump up to that state-tournament level, and then to try and do something at state. She has handled those pressure situations before. I really like her chances to make state. As a coach, I really want to see her make that state tournament and make some noise.”
But Hirsch knows it will not easy, as Highland will again be competing in Class A, the smaller of the state’s two classes. The past two years, Class A has been very competitive, especially with golfers coming from the metro-east and southern Illinois.
“It has sometimes been more competitive than 2A, especially in our area,” Hirsch said. “Golf in this area has been pretty good for a long time. Really since I started in golf way back in ’98, the talent in this area has been fantastic, and that is evident by the number of kids that are playing college golf on college scholarships. Our area is a mecca, so we’ll see how she can do.”
After Portell, Highland returns very little experience, and the numbers are low. HHS had only nine players as of Friday. So for the majority of the squad, it will be about gaining that invaluable time and experience on the golf course.
On days that the schedule has a varsity and JV match, there will more than likely be five players competing at varsity and four on the JV.
“Some players might sub in some varsity, some JV,” Hirsch said. “That just gives the kids more experience, and the more we play them, the better that they’re going to get. I am really excited about the kids that I have out. These girls are all even-tempered, and we don’t really have any one that lets their temper get in the way. So, I am really excited about this year. It’s going to be all about improvement. We’re going to measure our success by how we improve. If we do what I think we’re going to do, I think great things are going to happen.”
Besides Portell, the only other two players who gained some varsity experience last year were junior Kayla Davis and sophomore Geena Budwell.
“Kayla always comes with a smile ready to play,” Hirsch said. “She loves the game. She is very calm on a golf course, and it’s great to watch her. She is fun. If she hits a bad shot, she just smiles. That is a great characteristic to have on the golf course.”
A junior newcomer to the team is Gabrielle Berolatti, who plays softball as her primary sport.
“She plays softball, so she’s got the swing, but we’ve just got to tuck her elbow in a little bit more,” Hirsch said. “But when you’re a softball player, you have the ability to turn on a ball. I think she is going to be a great addition to the golf team. We’re going to work with her pretty closely and see if we can get her in the varsity lineup pretty quickly.”
Hirsch is also has high hopes for sophomore Audrey Wilke.
“The Wilke family is a great golfing family, so I am really excited to have her on the team,” Hirsch said.
Two freshmen that Hirsch is also excited about are Lia Basden and Meridith Kleinmann.
“They’re young, but they’ve got some talent,” Hirsch said.
This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 10:31 AM with the headline "Portell has what it takes for big junior year on the links."