Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
#TitleIX50: Blue Raider Women’s Golf’s Avery George
6/25/2023 12:00:00 PM | General, Women's Golf, BRAA
Golf is a game that gives you extremely high highs, and extremely low lows. It's not often that you're somewhere in between if you approach the game the right way. It's just as important to be sharp mentally as it is physically on the course. It's almost like you can have a love-hate relationship with the game. But if you ask anyone who has immersed themselves into the game as deeply as I have had the opportunity to in my life, they wouldn't trade any of those experiences for the world.
Growing up, I was actually a softball player. Golf never really interested me until I was around 13 years old and I went to the driving range for the first time with my dad. It took a little while for me to change that softball swing and get the mechanics down, but once I did, I fell in love with golf. Going into high school, I actually decided to start golfing instead of playing softball, which was something I had gotten really good at over the years.
Sure, it was a little surprising that my life had taken this turn. It was hard at first. For my mom and I, our thing was softball. It was a bit sad to be getting away from that, but both of my parents love and support me and got behind my decision to start golfing, which was the first step toward success that I had no idea I'd have at the time.
Throughout high school, I think those years really helped me develop as a player. We had lots of success as a team, and as coaches started showing up to tournaments, I realized that I had a chance to take this thing to the next level.
Looking back on my career as a whole, my parents, coaches, teammates and support staff all helped me continue climbing the ladder as high as I could, but there was one woman that really stood out in my career and continues to do so to this day.
Usually, when coaches recruit at high school tournaments, they can watch you for a few holes and know whether they want you or not. Coach Chris Adams from here at MTSU was watching me at every hole of every tournament she could possibly make it to. That commitment to me and investment she made in me combined with honestly liking MTSU as a school made it an easy choice to become a Blue Raider.
Title IX has meant so much to me because without it, none of my story would've ever come true. It gave me Coach Adams, who has been a Godsend for me. She pushed me and really helped me not just on the course, but off of it.
As a young player when I first got to MTSU, one of the first things that I could tell was important for us as a team was how we approached our academics, golf, and life in general. You had to have the right attitude or you weren't going to make it.
As I mentioned earlier, golf is a game with extremely high highs and really low lows. As a younger player, you definitely experience more of the lows than you do when you're a more experienced player, naturally. But one thing Coach taught me and drilled into all of us was that when you're down in the dumps, you have to have the right attitude and approach and just remember that it's one bad day. Just because you have a bad day doesn't mean you are a bad player. Take the bad moments in golf and learn from them. It's something I use not just in golf, but in life.
When you feel like you're on top of the world and you're on a hot streak, remain humble. If you don't, the game can humble you quickly. At the same time though, attitude is important here because while you want to remain humble, you also have to play with confidence. If you're afraid to hit a hybrid around a dog-leg to the right on a par five because you think you'll hit the trees on the way to the pin instead of thinking about you having the ability to hit it over the trees and get to the green on the flipside of the coin, you can take away a lot of opportunities. You don't want to overdo it, but at the same time you have to believe in yourself. I can't tell you how much that helped me in my career.
Pushing my game and challenging my teammates to do the same is what helped us ultimately win back-to-back Conference USA titles and be part of the first group to compete in the NCAA Tournament in school history. That's something special that nobody can ever take away from us and that we can always look back on and remember for the rest of our lives.
After my career at MTSU was over, Coach Adams didn't ever stop pushing me. I knew that I had an opportunity to play professionally and with the support from her and my family, I realized that dream. I, a young girl that didn't even pick up a club until about 10 years prior to that point, got the opportunity to play professional golf because of everything that Title IX and college golf gave me.
Though my time on tour didn't last as long as I would've liked, I got to meet so many people and travel to places and see some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, and I proved to not only myself, but to everyone, that I was good enough to hang around with some of the best women's golfers in the world!
Sadly, I ended up breaking my ankle, and my time as a professional came grinding to a halt. At the time it happened, it was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic so I was kind of stuck in life. It was tough to deal with at first, but I never gave up hope and I approached everything on a daily basis with the right attitude and eventually found myself right back here at MTSU where I started as an assistant coach for the women's golf team.
Over the past two years, it's been so rewarding to get to work with the group of girls that we have and help them develop and try to realize their dreams just as I had the chance to do. One thing that I learned early on in my coaching days was that things with coaching and what we look for in recruiting is attitude. We want to find girls that have a great attitude and can exhibit those qualities that make you not only a successful young woman on the golf course, but in the classroom and the community. The entire reason I wanted to get into coaching was to have that impact on girls and help them accomplish whatever it is in life however I can do it, guiding them based on the experiences I had when I was in their shoes. Whether they want to become a professional, or if they want to do something else in life, I will do whatever I can to help them get to where they want to be.
After all, I think that's what Title IX is based on. Giving young women the chance to become the best version of themselves using athletics as an avenue. To be able to continue having that impact at a place that made such a huge impression on me and led me to great heights in my own career is unfathomable. Getting to work alongside and continue learning from the coach that jumpstarted my professional career makes me eager to get up and come to work every day. Because, after all, I don't truly view what I do as work. It may sound cliché, but you never work a day in your life if you get to do what you love every day. I've gotten to immerse myself in playing, coaching and the business side of golf. Getting to continue to do that every day because of the sacrifices of administrators, coaches, former teammates and my now work-colleagues is all from the sacrifices of the many women that have impacted this University through Title IX over the past 50-plus years, and for that I am forever grateful.
Growing up, I was actually a softball player. Golf never really interested me until I was around 13 years old and I went to the driving range for the first time with my dad. It took a little while for me to change that softball swing and get the mechanics down, but once I did, I fell in love with golf. Going into high school, I actually decided to start golfing instead of playing softball, which was something I had gotten really good at over the years.
Sure, it was a little surprising that my life had taken this turn. It was hard at first. For my mom and I, our thing was softball. It was a bit sad to be getting away from that, but both of my parents love and support me and got behind my decision to start golfing, which was the first step toward success that I had no idea I'd have at the time.
Throughout high school, I think those years really helped me develop as a player. We had lots of success as a team, and as coaches started showing up to tournaments, I realized that I had a chance to take this thing to the next level.
Looking back on my career as a whole, my parents, coaches, teammates and support staff all helped me continue climbing the ladder as high as I could, but there was one woman that really stood out in my career and continues to do so to this day.
Usually, when coaches recruit at high school tournaments, they can watch you for a few holes and know whether they want you or not. Coach Chris Adams from here at MTSU was watching me at every hole of every tournament she could possibly make it to. That commitment to me and investment she made in me combined with honestly liking MTSU as a school made it an easy choice to become a Blue Raider.
Title IX has meant so much to me because without it, none of my story would've ever come true. It gave me Coach Adams, who has been a Godsend for me. She pushed me and really helped me not just on the course, but off of it.
As a young player when I first got to MTSU, one of the first things that I could tell was important for us as a team was how we approached our academics, golf, and life in general. You had to have the right attitude or you weren't going to make it.
As I mentioned earlier, golf is a game with extremely high highs and really low lows. As a younger player, you definitely experience more of the lows than you do when you're a more experienced player, naturally. But one thing Coach taught me and drilled into all of us was that when you're down in the dumps, you have to have the right attitude and approach and just remember that it's one bad day. Just because you have a bad day doesn't mean you are a bad player. Take the bad moments in golf and learn from them. It's something I use not just in golf, but in life.
When you feel like you're on top of the world and you're on a hot streak, remain humble. If you don't, the game can humble you quickly. At the same time though, attitude is important here because while you want to remain humble, you also have to play with confidence. If you're afraid to hit a hybrid around a dog-leg to the right on a par five because you think you'll hit the trees on the way to the pin instead of thinking about you having the ability to hit it over the trees and get to the green on the flipside of the coin, you can take away a lot of opportunities. You don't want to overdo it, but at the same time you have to believe in yourself. I can't tell you how much that helped me in my career.
Pushing my game and challenging my teammates to do the same is what helped us ultimately win back-to-back Conference USA titles and be part of the first group to compete in the NCAA Tournament in school history. That's something special that nobody can ever take away from us and that we can always look back on and remember for the rest of our lives.
After my career at MTSU was over, Coach Adams didn't ever stop pushing me. I knew that I had an opportunity to play professionally and with the support from her and my family, I realized that dream. I, a young girl that didn't even pick up a club until about 10 years prior to that point, got the opportunity to play professional golf because of everything that Title IX and college golf gave me.
Though my time on tour didn't last as long as I would've liked, I got to meet so many people and travel to places and see some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, and I proved to not only myself, but to everyone, that I was good enough to hang around with some of the best women's golfers in the world!
Sadly, I ended up breaking my ankle, and my time as a professional came grinding to a halt. At the time it happened, it was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic so I was kind of stuck in life. It was tough to deal with at first, but I never gave up hope and I approached everything on a daily basis with the right attitude and eventually found myself right back here at MTSU where I started as an assistant coach for the women's golf team.
Over the past two years, it's been so rewarding to get to work with the group of girls that we have and help them develop and try to realize their dreams just as I had the chance to do. One thing that I learned early on in my coaching days was that things with coaching and what we look for in recruiting is attitude. We want to find girls that have a great attitude and can exhibit those qualities that make you not only a successful young woman on the golf course, but in the classroom and the community. The entire reason I wanted to get into coaching was to have that impact on girls and help them accomplish whatever it is in life however I can do it, guiding them based on the experiences I had when I was in their shoes. Whether they want to become a professional, or if they want to do something else in life, I will do whatever I can to help them get to where they want to be.
After all, I think that's what Title IX is based on. Giving young women the chance to become the best version of themselves using athletics as an avenue. To be able to continue having that impact at a place that made such a huge impression on me and led me to great heights in my own career is unfathomable. Getting to work alongside and continue learning from the coach that jumpstarted my professional career makes me eager to get up and come to work every day. Because, after all, I don't truly view what I do as work. It may sound cliché, but you never work a day in your life if you get to do what you love every day. I've gotten to immerse myself in playing, coaching and the business side of golf. Getting to continue to do that every day because of the sacrifices of administrators, coaches, former teammates and my now work-colleagues is all from the sacrifices of the many women that have impacted this University through Title IX over the past 50-plus years, and for that I am forever grateful.
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