Finding Her Passion: Cougars’ Gibson named girls golf Athlete of the Year

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Greenfield-Central's Caroline Gibson watches her shot during the girls county match at Hawks Tail in Greenfield on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

GREENFIELD — When your last name is Gibson and you live in Greenfield, there’s an expectation.

And, typically, it’s a lifelong passion that entails a bat, a ball and a glove.

Greenfield-Central’s Caroline Gibson was no different, and in a way, she still is. As a kid growing up, she immediately gravitated towards the softball diamond, following in her family’s hardball tradition.

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Gibson envisioned a collegiate future as a catcher for years, coming up through the Cougars’ ranks and with her summer softball club, the Indiana Gators.

Then came a torn ACL in her left knee during her sophomore basketball season, the difficult road back to full strength and a moment that ultimately defined her final two years at Greenfield-Central.

“I was so set on playing softball in college. That was my passion. That was what I was born into. We were a baseball family. Everyone played baseball, and I was going to play softball. That was kind of the standard,” she recalled.

“My last travel season of softball (before my junior year), it kind of felt old to me. Everything was the same. Golf is different. Every time you go out there, it’s a different mentality, different game, different course. In softball, a softball field is a softball field.”

Gibson didn’t give up on softball, still competing every spring for the Cougars, but once the late summer of 2019 arrived, she narrowed down her focus to golf, which led to an unforgettable new standard set.

A two-time girls golf state-qualifier as a junior and this past fall, Gibson and the Cougars dominated the course to win back-to-back team sectional titles, the Hoosier Heritage Conference and a Hancock County team championship repeat.

As a group they set an 18-hole match score record and reached the IHSAA girls state finals collectively for the first time since 1994.

Individually, Gibson won medalist honors at county and sectional — a career first — and at the conclusion of her four years earned the title of 2020 All-County Girls Golf Athlete of the Year.

And to think, it all started with finding her true passion.

“Actually, we finally got fitted for my first set of clubs when I was a junior,” Gibson laughed.

This season, Gibson put those Mizuno irons and Ping driver to work, yet again, tying for 22nd at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel at state with a two-day score of 163. She shot a career-best 78 in the first round and finished the tournament with an 85 after tying for 30th in 2019.

However, her proudest achievement stems from the team’s accomplishments.

At state, the Cougars placed 13th with a team score of 748, one stroke ahead of Concord (749).

Greenfield-Central’s 2019 sectional title marked the first for the program since 2011-12. For an encore, they fired a school-record 340 on their home course at Hawk’s Tail of Greenfield to win a second straight championship and 11th sectional all time.

At the Lapel Regional, the Cougars etched their names in the leather-bound record books, shooting a 345 for third place, to end a 26-year drought.

“To see (my teammates) so happy about going to state as a team, it made me feel like a different type of golfer,” Gibson said. “We’re always there for each other, and we still hangout to this day, even though golf season is over. We always talk about state. Certain things get brought up, and I think it will always continue to be brought back up. To make history, we’re going to remember that.”

Not that Gibson needs any mementos.

Friends and teammates with fellow seniors Tandess O’Neal and Haley Hoagland, while a mentor to both Sydnie Wherry and Katie Curry, Gibson won’t turn the page quickly as she continues her career at Indiana Wesleyan next year.

“We all got these posters from state that had our names on them. We can take that with us the rest of our lives, which is really cool,” Gibson said. “It’s just more things to remember with each other, and more memories we have together.”

Much like the bus rides to state last month and other meets during the season, Gibson jokes about now. The team’s bonding moments via Sharpie markers and the cryptic inspirational quotes each player printed on their wrists and forearms in unity.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget Katie getting bus sick on the way to state both days with motion sickness,” Gibson laughed. “That was something I’ll never forget. She took it like a champ. She prepared herself and brought a bag.”

Gibson rarely entered a competition unprepared, herself.

Since her freshman year, she worked at Hawk’s Tail as a clubhouse employee and worked with assistant pro Brandon Morton on her mechanics even before she made her full commitment to the sport.

Later, her parents Mark and Darla, connected Caroline with Chuck Helms, a golf instructor at Maple Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis.

Both provided Gibson with the confidence and knowledge she needed to fire a career-low 72 to open her junior season at Greensburg and build the momentum she hoped to reach state twice.

“I’ve always worked with Brandon. If I need a quick fix, Brandon is there to help me,” Gibson said. “But, I started working with Chuck just recently and he really helped my swing.

“My first year at state, Chuck was there because I was playing with (New Palestine’s) Annaliese (Fox) on the second day,” Gibson added. “Chuck was watching Annaliese because that was also her swing coach. He was talking to my dad a little bit, and he said, let me work with here. My dad set me aside and said, if you want to get serious with this, then that’s where you need to be, with Chuck.”

Much like the determination she used to recover from her knee injury that required two surgeries in late 2018, followed by several months of physical therapy, Gibson’s all-in approach spread throughout the Cougars’ lineup.

“Chuck, mentally and with my game, he’s helped me out a ton,” Gibson said. “Making me look at stuff differently.”

With Gibson at the lead, the Cougars saw what was possible and it helped them finally leap past rival New Palestine in 2019.

After seasons of witnessing the Dragons win five sectional titles from 2014 through 2018 and reach state as a team in 2014, the Cougars put it all together two years ago.

When Gibson reached the state finals in 2019, her 36-hole round score of 166 further cemented the team’s hopes for 2020, especially after she bested her friend and rival, Fox, by one stroke at regional to advance.

“It wasn’t even my goal to go to state, but then junior year I first broke 80 and I shot a 72 at my first tournament and thought, alright,” Gibson said. “That was kind of expected of me for the rest of the tournaments on to break 80, so that was always the goal from there throughout. And, it continued to to happen. I don’t think I shot over a 76, the rest of that year. It just instilled that confidence inside of me.”

She shot a 72 to reach state in 2019, and as a senior, she carded a 76 for fourth as the team shot a 345 to advance as the third-place finisher.

“Winning sectional the year before this year, beating New Pal, that’s something I won’t forget, and I’ll remind Annaliese of it every time I see here,” Gibson joked.

“But, I knew what it took to get to the next level, we all did, and it was people just pushing me. It was my parents, who pushed me to go to the golf course when probably I shouldn’t be at home being lazy. Everyone just put confidence in me and that made me become a better player, and maybe makes a my head a little too big.”

Family is important to Gibson, and it will carry on in college with her brother Carson also committing to Indiana Wesleyan for baseball.

“I don’t think I realized how close we were until we visited the same schools,” Gibson said of her brother. “What school he liked, I don’t know, it made me like it more. I didn’t realized that’s how close we were. It wasn’t necessarily something we planned. We weren’t going to go to the same school. We didn’t think about it, but if we didn’t I think it would affected more me than him. The place that we’re at now, I couldn’t be happier.”

This offseason, Caroline finds her smile at Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville with her future teammates, time in the golf simulator at Indiana Wesleyan and at Top Golf, always hitting off the upper balcony.

Slowed momentarily by a knee injury suffered this basketball season, Gibson intends to play softball one last time this spring, then it’s fall and spring golf at the next level.

“They play conference in the spring. The fall is kind of working up to that, and you have the whole offseason to prepare for conference. It excites me very much, having two seasons to look forward to and not just one,” she said.

Even after graduation, the Gibson name won’t soon fade — on the golf course.

“After one of my matches, I stayed after and was putting. New Pal’s coach Sarah (O’Brien) came up to me and said to me one of her younger girls had come up to her and asked, ‘Why is she putting? She just finished a round.’ And, she told the girl, ‘Well, if you want to be good, that’s what it takes,’” Gibson said. “To know that the younger girls look up to me, that’s just cool to me.”

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2020 All-County Girls Golf Team

First Team

Caroline Gibson, Greenfield-Central

Alaina Nugent, Mt. Vernon

Tandess O’Neal, Greenfield-Central

Meredith Johnson, Mt. Vernon

Megan Diller, New Palestine

Second Team

Haley Hoagland, Greenfield-Central

Emily Rollo, Mt. Vernon

Haleigh Cavaletto, Eastern Hancock

Sydnie Wherry, Greenfield-Central

Zoe Nelson, New Palestine

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