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Harley Turner, coach of the MHS girls golf team from 1987-1999 sent me this letter sharing his memories of our girls winning the High School Girls Golf State Championship two-years in a row.
From 1986-1990 I coached the girls and often the boys Norman High School golf teams and watched our Miami girls win state two years in a row. How fitting that my hometown would beat the socks off my new home in Norman.
*Thank you Harley for sharing this.
Hello to you Letty. I do remember meeting you and was very familiar with the Stapp name. At the time I was coaching, many members of the club spoke affectionately of your father.
I loved every moment coaching the girls through the years of 1987 through 1999, when I retired. My first year I was blessed with one senior and four incoming freshmen.
My senior was Julie
Rieger who won every event we had that season. Julie finished her high
school career by being state medalist, I don’t remember her scores, but
during my coaching career there was no classification for girl’s
golf, so she was most certainly state champion. Maybe more important
to me was the influence she instilled in the freshman, who were gifted in
their own right. With Julie’s leadership the team finished SECOND in
state as a team.
Those girls, Paige Parrott, Jan Haney, Lori Lillard, Shawna Fitzgibbon, continued working on their game and improving. The winner of their first state championship competition was Jenks. We played second fiddle to them that year and almost all the next two years. Jenks won back-to-back state championship 87 & 88, and they were dominating in 89. We continually finished second to them all that season.
But at the state tournament at Lake Hefner south golf course destiny took over. After the first round we were in 4th place 11 strokes behind Jenks. That night at the hotel I was upset with the girls because we were behind Edmond and Bartlesville and the week before we beat Bartlesville by I think 50 strokes.
Now to put things in perspective, at this time once a tournament began the coach could only speak to the players after 9 holes had been played and after the round was finished. So, after the turn we were playing really well and with checking with other coaches, particularly Jenks their 1&2 girls were playing extremely well (they tied for state medalist) but their 3,4, and 5 were struggling.
Jennifer Gatewood, Shawna Fitzgibbon, Lori Lillard, Jan Haney, and Paige Parrott Had all finished and we had an excellent round. Jenks girls (5,4,3) had finished and by my calculations Jenks 1, and 2 had to eagle the 18th hole to beat us. On the Negative side their balls were both on the green, putting for eagles. Both missed and we had our State Championship.
The next year we not only had everyone back, but we also had a sophomore Kasie Sly who improved her game (she later became an all-stater). We played the 1990 season undefeated, but because of heavy rain all day long, we only played one round for the State Championship and we won by 49 strokes.
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It was because of being the only back to back team state champions in Miami High School history the girls were selected into the schools “HALL OF FAME”, in 2023.
