WHITEHALL – Ava Garcia loves to compete. That’s evident in the way she golfs, bowls, plays soccer, and attacks her studies.
The Whitehall senior is typically laser-focused, but she can get a little distracted in certain situations on the golf course.
Look! It’s a squirrel!
“I do remember one time, we were playing golf. I think this might’ve been last year or a couple of years ago. This was at practice. I hit one of my balls and there was like a squirrel and she loves squirrels,” recalled Haylie Barrett, a good friend, classmate, and teammate of Garcia’s on Whitehall’s girls golf team.
“She’s obsessed with them – it’s like her favorite animal. I hit my ball and it got really close to a squirrel and we thought that I hit it and we weren’t sure. And, all of a sudden, it ran away and it took my ball. It literally took my ball and it was so funny. I remember she was like going crazy because she thought that I hit the squirrel and she was about to start crying because she loves them.”
Garcia is anything but squirrelly in competition. She is an all-conference performer in golf and bowling and she’s competed at the state-finals level in both sports. She’s enjoys mixing it up on the soccer field as a center-midfielder for the Vikings.
In the classroom, the daughter of Susan Gargus and Jim Garcia boasts a GPA over 4.0.
“Once I commit to something, I fully commit and I put all of my effort into that,” she said. “I have the drive to be good and I want to be good.”
Accordingly, Garcia has very high expectations of herself.
When things don’t go her way, sometimes it’s difficult to deal with the disappointment.
Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
“She’s very good at everything,” Barrett said. “She just excels at everything she does, but she’s also very hard on herself. That’s something that I’m always talking to her about. She’s just really awesome at everything she does.”
That’s not to say things necessarily come easy for Garcia. Her freshman year on the golf team is a good example of that.
According to Whitehall golf coach Bill Borgman, Garcia shot 180 in her first round as a Viking. Fast forward three years and her best 18-hole round is a 79.
“That’s 100 strokes savings if you look at it in a four-year time frame. That’s just, like, crazy,” Borgman said. “That, in itself, tells you about the character she has with playing and getting better at the game.
“She worked hard over the summers, playing, practicing, playing in my little tour event that I have. I mean, all the credit to her for going as far as she has.”
Garcia’s 18-hole scoring average has improved each season. It went from 104.1 as a freshman to 96.3 as a sophomore to 87.7 as a junior and now 86.6 as a senior.
Garcia was runner-up in the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association tournament Sept. 27 at Oak Ridge Golf Club, where she shot an 81. She was paired with Reeths-Puffer senior standout Paige Anderson, who carded a remarkable, bogey-free round of 4-under 69.
Two days later, Garcia took second in the West Michigan Conference Championship at Lincoln Golf Club with another 81. Ludington senior Emma McKinley was medalist with a 75.
“(Garcia) is a score-watcher. I’m trying to get her away from being a score-watcher and being more in the moment,” Borgman said. “If she can stay in the moment and not worry about score, she’ll usually do pretty well.”
Borgman said that Garcia is good at making adjustments on the course. For example, if her driver is not on, then she’ll go with a hybrid so that she can keep the ball in the fairway.
Garcia also excels in bowling. She has qualified individually for the bowling state finals and has earned all-conference accolades in each of her first three seasons.
“Ava is incredibly driven. She will not rest until she has mastered a skill,” Whitehall bowling coach Tyson Jasperse said. “Her qualifying for state is not an accident. It is a result of hard work and never giving up even when it seems impossible.
“I have seen Ava grow over the last three years as she has learned how to navigate the successes and the hardships that accompany being a top-level bowler. I am looking forward to working with Ava again for her senior season this year.”
Garcia understands the importance of the mental aspect of sports. She is fascinated by the brain and how it functions.
Garcia is considering pursuing a career as a physician’s assistant. She would major in either psychology or neuroscience.
“I think the brain is very interesting and I did AP Psychology sophomore year and I just loved everything about it,” she said. “The things we unconsciously do that are, like, an actual behavior, it interests me. And how everything is just connected. It’s interesting.
“And PA-wise, I just want to make a difference and help people live a better life, I guess.”
Garcia’s focus at the moment is on helping Whitehall qualify for the Division 3 golf state finals Oct. 20-21 at The Meadows on the campus of Grand Valley State University. In order to achieve that, the Vikings will have to finish among the top three teams in Tuesday’s regional at a very challenging St. Ives Golf Course.
Whitehall qualified as a team for the state finals in each of Garcia’s first three years. If the Vikings do not qualify for the state finals, then Garcia will still be able to advance. The top three individuals who are not part of qualifying teams also advance to the state finals.
“I really hope our team makes it to states. That’s my biggest goal,” Garcia said. “I think our team puts in so much effort and work. That’s kind of overlooked. People are like, ‘Oh, it’s just golf. It’s not that hard.’ But they don’t understand that every day after school we’re practicing for two hours, our matches are four to six hours. It’s a lot more than people expect. It just would be nice to have all our work pay off and make it to state.”
The mental part of the game is every bit as important as the physical aspect, if not more important, especially in state tournament time.
Garcia is ready to compete and she’ll be able to draw from her many experiences.
“It’s crazy. Golf is very mental and you just have to overcome it. Freshman year I was so bad mentally – like, so bad. But now I’ve drastically improved,” Garcia said. “Like the other day, I would have some 7s and it would be like, ‘It’s OK, I’ve got it.’ Golf has helped me more than just physically. It’s helped me mentally develop as a person.”
