ALL-STAR SPORTS WEEK: Trinity's Holmes enjoys round during all-star week
Virginia Ann Holmes (far left) completes her round with her foursome during the Alabama All-Star Sports Week golf competition at Arrowhead Country Club. (Tim Gayle)
BY TIM GAYLE
Virginia Ann Holmes was born with a golf club in her hand.
The Trinity senior has a long history of golf players in her family that almost directed her interest from the time she was born.
“I always played with my dad and my brother,” she said, “and they got it from my dad’s dad. The cool thing about golf is you can play it when you get older, so I definitely will always play. It’ll be a part of my work when I get older, too. I don’t really know what the future holds with golf, but I think it will definitely be a sport I’ll always continue to play, just with fun and with friends.”
She had fun walking the course at Arrowhead Country Club on Monday as part of the South team at Alabama All-Stars Sports Week, even if the end result was another victory by the North.
“It was definitely an honor to be asked to play in it,” she said. “It was real exciting when the list came out and I was on it. It’s a lot of fun. You treat it just like a normal golf tournament, but because you have a partner with you, it kind of takes a little bit of the pressure off of it. So it’s kind of more of a fun event than super serious.”
The North girls won the match-play event that included four two-person teams from the South and four more from the North. The North swept three matches, including a 10.5-7.5 victory by Gabi Nicastro of Huntsville and Grace Engel of Grissom over Holmes and her partner, Tori Waters of UMS-Wright. The South salvaged a 9-9 tie in the fourth match with Pike Road’s Yvette Gorden and Daphne’s Eza Velazquez finishing tied with Gracee Prince of James Clemens and Ava Schwartz of Huntsville.
In the boys’ competition, the five-team North won 62.5-27.5 in a 5-0 sweep, including a 11.5-6.5 win by Jay Clemmer of Vestavia Hills and Ian Willoughby of Cullman over River Friend of Leeds and Dawson Criswell of Trinity and a 15.5-2.5 win by Morgan Slaton II of Huntsville and Austin Freeman of Hewitt-Trussville over the Montgomery Academy duo of Breland Burnham and McRae Foshee.
Golf was added to the All-Stars Sports Week roster in 2019 and while the North has an advantage because of a larger talent pool from bigger schools, Holmes said the sport of girls’ golf is growing throughout the state, something she is helping through her work at an Auburn golf course.
“I think it’s definitely growing,” she said. “It’s getting there. There are definitely aspects of it that need work, especially in Montgomery. There’s not a huge junior program. But Brooke Singleton at Wynlakes is really helping to get it started, which is really cool. But I think it’s cool to be a part of it and to one day tell everybody that I played high school golf.”
No one ever had to talk Holmes into playing. Playing golf comes naturally, even though she never got to know the man who started it all in their family. Eddie Holmes coached UMS-Wright to 11 consecutive state championships in the 1990s and 2000s and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at UMS-Wright, Spring Hill College and with the Alabama High School Athletic Association in 2001.
“I know a lot of stories,” Virginia Ann said. “I never got to meet him because he passed away (in 2003) two years before I was born. But it’s really cool that every time I go down to Mobile, everyone has a new story to tell me about my grandfather so I really know more about his legacy and the impact he had on people more than actually who he was. But from what I heard, he was an awesome man and a great coach.”
Her father Beau played on several of those state championship teams for his father and inherited his father’s love for golf.
“That was one of my favorite things about it,” Virginia Ann said. “Especially when I was younger, we would travel all around the country playing in golf tournaments together. My dad is my best friend. We’re always out on the golf course together and it’s really fun because it really brought us closer from a very, very young age.”
Her brother Will played on Trinity’s 2016 team that finished second in the state tournament and paved the way for Virginia Ann’s decision to join the Trinity golf team a couple of years later.
“Will is one of my biggest cheerleaders,” she said. “He is always texting me, encouraging me. He’s super, super proud of me, which is special. I love my brother and I’m very proud of who he is.”
In an intriguing twist, she was paired on Monday with Waters, who plays golf at the school whose golf program was built by her grandfather and includes her father among its alumni. Meanwhile, back at Trinity, Holmes’ contributions to the sport certainly don’t rise to the level of attention that athletes receive from playing football or baseball.
“But I’ve seen a big difference from last year to this year, people who have reached out to me,” Holmes observed. “I’ve gotten texts this morning. I have a lot of cheerleaders who cheer me on.”
And while she wasn’t victorious in her performance on Monday, Virginia Ann Holmes can certainly look back on the event fondly as she tries to spread the influence of girls’ golf in central Alabama.
“Getting to be on a team with people that you’re usually competing against is really fun because a lot of the girls here I’ve played against in high school tournaments and other tournaments,” she said. “It was really just an honor to be asked to play in it. It was a lot of fun.”