Surrounded by her cousins swinging their clubs as they practice and play their sport, Sofia Emmanoilidis (12) felt a pull to learn golf. Emmanoilidis started playing in 8th grade has now advanced to the highschool team.

Since she started Emmanoilidis improved to the point of helping her team improve beyond sectionals and onto regionals. Emmanoilidis credits the improved teamwork as the reason they were able to push past sectionals.

“I feel like working better as a team helped us get to regionals,” Emmanoilidis said. “We were more connected which made everybody else do better.”

Reaching these achievements did not come without its challenges for Emmanoilidis as she battled the mental challenge golf brought her.

“A challenge I overcame this season was getting out of my own head and doing better mentally because golf is such like a mental sport,” Emmanoilidis said. “I feel like I did better mentally this year.” 

Along with the mental challenge of golf Emmanoilidis has had to overcome the challenge of balancing multiple AP classes and her sport.

“Balancing school and golf is definitely super hard but I think a big part of it is trying not to procrastinate,” Emmanoilidis said. “It was hard when we had practice every day for so long because I had to balance studying and homework.”

Emmanoilidis has learned many things from her sport that she can take with her into her future career as a dentist. She is hoping to go to University of Michigan or Indiana University to study biology and go to dental school.

“Golf helps me to focus and learn to not give up when things are challenging,” Emmanoilidis said. “Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a dentist, because my aunt’s a dentist and I have always been interested in that.”

Growing up around both golf and dentistry has had a stong influence on her life and pushed her toward her future while giving her the tools she needs.