Tee party: Iola High student leads successful effort to start girls golf team

Iola High School junior Briley Prather was the driving force over the summer behind a successful effort to start a girls golf team at IHS. The 2024 season launches next week.

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Sports

August 22, 2024 - 1:57 PM

Iola High School junior Briley Prather, shown here at a tournament in April, was the driving force behind a successful effort to launch a girls golf team this fall at IHS. Up to now, Prather has been on the boys golf team. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

Briley Prather wasn’t necessarily looking to put her name in the Iola High School history books.

She was just looking for some friends to golf with.

At Prather’s urging, Iola school board members approved the formation this summer of the first ever IHS girls golf team.

The team tees off next Thursday with a junior varsity meet in Fort Scott. 

“I’m very excited,” Prather said as she took swings Tuesday during a practice round at the Allen County Country Club. “It’s been super fun already.”

Prather, a junior, learned the sport at the tender age of nine, and played on the Iola Middle School team.

But when she entered high school, staying on the links meant joining the boys team, which competes each spring.

It also meant following the same parameters for the boys, including teeing off from the blue and white tee boxes, which are much farther away than the red tee boxes reserved for female golfers.

Red tee boxes at the country club are about 65 yards closer to the hole on average than the blue and white tee boxes.

“There’s a lot of difference,” Prather said.

The idea came last spring when Prather and her fellow girl teammates Keira Fawson and Madeleine Wanker were shooting a round, once again, versus a golf course filled with boys.

Prather counted nary a single female golfer among the other teams.

She approached boys coach Jeremy Sellman about establishing a girls team. Sellman encouraged Prather to appeal to IHS athletic director Matt Baumwart and USD 257 school board members.

“She brought in a very well-written letter that explained her position,,” Baumwart said.

He agreed to take it to the school board under one condition: Prather had to ensure there was enough interest among other girls to warrant creating a team.

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