Members of the co-ed Parochial League are teaming up with other private schools in Pulaski County to improve middle school golf teams.
The seven-week season, offered through First Tee of Central Arkansas, got underway March 16 at the Jack Stephens Youth Golf Academy in Little Rock, which was formerly Rock Creek Golf Course.
The 120 fifth- through eighth-grade players are divided into three groups and spend one day in class learning life skills, one day practicing and one day playing.
As members of First Tee, the student golfers can play year-round at the facility.
The Catholic schools in the Middle School League are Immaculate Heart of Mary and North Little Rock Catholic Academy in North Little Rock and St. Edward, Our Lady of the Holy Souls and Christ the King in Little Rock. Other private schools are Little Rock Christian, Arkansas Baptist, Episcopal Collegiate, Anthony School and Christ Lutheran in Little Rock, said Chad Kauffman, executive director of First Tee of Central Arkansas. Forest Heights Middle School, a public school in Little Rock, also participates.
First Tee is built around helping inner-city kids, said Brad Martin, director of golf at First Tee. The private schools were already playing at the facility but not involved in the program. Martin said he was helping with coaching, but because he already had First Tee classes he could not get involved much with the golfers. He succeeded in getting them to join First Tee.
Christ the King parishioner and volunteer Brian McRae said it has been a good fit and cites the changes he has seen in his son as proof.
"As a dad, my son Cameron, to see his transformation over a year, to see the passion that Brad has got. When I take him somewhere to play golf, he takes his hat off, shakes hands," McRae said.
Cameron is in the First Tee ambassadors program. Ambassadors participate in fund raisers for the program.
Golf and life mirror each other a lot. Golf may be very difficult at times and there are risks, rewards and challenges, Martin said.
"We feel like there are a lot of times when the things that we do to be good golfers we need to do to be good people," Martin said. "We want to get the kids to learn golf better as well as get successful in life."
"You can tell a First Tee kid from a mile away when you go to these events just in the way he carries himself," he added.
McRae gives credit to Martin for the new league.
"If it wasn't for First Tee, there would not be a Middle School League in Little Rock. There is no other facility in this town that can take 120 kids and shut down the course and let them play for three days so the kids are very fortunate to have this out here and they need to be commended for that. Brad fought hard for it to get these kids out here."
Little Rock is fortunate to have a facility like this, Martin agreed.
"There are 250 First Tee chapters worldwide, and there are probably only a handful have this type of facility, with a learning center like this beautiful building, access to the kids right in the heart of town, 18 holes of golf out here, nine holes where we can teach and nine holes that we can play on, a beautiful driving range practice facility," Martin said. "There are just not many places like this in the country. Our revenue is not generated by public play. Our revenue is generated through corporate, state, federal and local funding of the First Tee, so we are not driving revenue with carts and food and all that kind of stuff. We are taking care of kids."
In all, of the 1,500 youth involved in First Tee of Central Arkansas, 500 have scholarships.
"So one-third of our clientele are kids that can't afford to be part of this program," Martin said.
Although the parochial schools have had a golf league for a number of years, "this year is the first year that we have really kind of taken ownership of it as a First Tee facility," Martin said.
Although not all kids continue with golf or First Tee, 90 percent are still using the life skills they learned, Kauffman said.
"We want the kids coming through the Middle School League to be good golfers. We think that it teaches things that other sports can't," he added.
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