By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Southeast girls golf head coach Cindy Fesemyer is arguably the most compassionate coach in Portage County.

The thing is, she is arguably the most competitive, too.

Her personality has included a blend of both for as long as she can remember.

It is what drove her as a student-athlete and it has always motivated her as a coach.

Build relationships, teach fundamentals, have fun and win as many games as possible along the way.

When her competitive spirit is shining near its brightest, there is a distinguishable smile that fills her face.

The look of someone who knows something you don’t know.

Or maybe the look of someone who knows something and is OK with the fact that you may know it, too.

When Fesemyer talks about sophomore standout Sammy Morgan, it doesn’t take long for that recognizable smile to appear.

Maybe it is because she is living in the present-day future that she saw years ago when Morgan first came to her as an elementary student participating in the “Pirates Play Golf” youth program.

“I knew it would one day happen for Sammy. I knew that she was going to be a great golfer,” Fesemyer said. “I watched her. She was determined and she was like a sponge watching her older brother James (now a junior on the Pirates’ boys golf team). That can be one of the best tools; to watch an older sibling compete. From a coach’s perspective, I tell her to just keep watching him because that is a type of coaching that you can’t duplicate.”

For Sammy, she burst onto the scene as a freshman phenom last fall. 

She was named First Team All-Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference and was part of a special lineup combination with Taylor Blazek that helped lead the Pirates to a sectional championship, district title and a berth into the OHSAA’s State Championships for the first-time ever.

With Blazek graduated, preparing to play for Gannon University, Morgan, though still an underclassmen, confidently steps into a leading role for the Pirates this season.

“Sammy has a level of confidence that just continues to grow,” Fesemyer said.

That confidence has been on display throughout the summer, with Morgan competing in a variety of notable events, including a championship performance at the Hudson Good Park Junior Tournament.

In that event, Morgan built a commanding lead in the opening two rounds, then closed out the tournament title by 19 strokes.

While Blazek had a special career and lifted the Pirates’ program to new heights, she did not start playing competitively until eighth grade. Morgan has been playing since she was 5 and those roots to the game are what Fesemyer points to when she considers Morgan the first youth player to come all the way up through the team’s youth program.

“With Taylor, Sammy could not have asked for a better role model,” Fesemyer said of the two standouts playing alongside each other last season. “Taylor pulled Sammy along, and they always had each other’s back. They wanted each other to succeed more than they did themselves and that is special, because there was never any jealousy or animosity. It is not common for a freshman to come in and go toe to toe with the star senior, but they both embraced it in a healthy way and it made our entire team better because of it.

“The team saw what good things can happen when we all work together.”

The problem is that sometimes the course is the thorn who doesn’t want to work with anyone. It is one of the most unique elements that Fesemyer, who was not a golfer before taking over the program as the head coach 12 years ago, had to learn how to understand and how to coach.

“Golf is different from any other sport. What other sport can you say that when you show up to compete, the court or field is totally different than the day before. Where you have to be in your own head for four to six hours over the course of 18 holes. Today won’t be like yesterday and today won’t be like tomorrow. And what kind of sport can you say that the harder you try, the worse you do. That’s one of golf’s ultimate challenges. That stuff fascinates me.”

Just like Morgan has a tendency to fascinate observers and competitors when she walks up to the tee and connects with her driver.

Most watch the ball as it soars through the air down the center of the fairway, but if you were to look back at Morgan’s coach, they would see a smile.

A distinguishable one.