August 15, 2022 • 31 mins
In this episode of the Birdie Bunch Podcast Kennedy and certified Personal Trainer Kiger Plews discuss the importance of working out, nutrition, and rest when it comes to athletics
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Birdie Bunch is a presentation of I Heart Radio
and the College Athletes Network. Can You dig It? Can
You dig It? You digg Hi everybody, this is Kennedy
(00:36):
Swan and you're listening to The Birdie Bunch on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
never miss a new episode. This can easily be done
via the I Heart Radio app. Also, you can find
me on Instagram at Can You dig It on my
website at www dot Kennedy Swan dot com. Feel free
to fill out my contact form with any suggestions, questions,
or comments about what you might want to see on
(00:57):
the show. On this week's episode, we have two special guests,
my parents, Laura and j Swan. Say Hi, guys, Hi, guys,
Hey everybody. So this week they're going to walk you
through a little bit of my recruiting process, kind of
how I got started with junior golf, um, and kind
of how we made the decision to really start focusing
(01:21):
on trying to get me a college scholarship. So, um, mom,
why don't you go ahead and tell us a little
bit about yourself where you were born and raised? Um,
you know you dove in college. Tell us a little
bit about that, and then what you do now? Okay? So, Um,
I grew up in Florida, spent twenty years in Florida. UM.
(01:41):
When I graduated high school, I got a scholarship, one
of the first female scholarships for UM, you know, college
athletes because of Title nine. So I got to go
to college on a athletic scholarship. UM die aging scholarship.
Went to college and do for UM five years and
(02:05):
have always been an athlete, always enjoyed it, UM, and
my kids have always been involved in sports as well.
It's just a real important part to our life. Yeah.
And at some time n C double a junior college champion.
That's uh, that's pretty special. I guess it runs in
the family. Yeah, I guess so. And uh, what's your
(02:27):
profession now? Okay? So I am um an assistant associate
professor at the University of Texas at Austin teaching the
School of Social Work. And I'm also a licensed counselor
and I have a private practice m counseling and sword
supporting people. Very nice And uh, Dad, what about you?
(02:48):
Where were you born and raised? Any sports in college?
And what do you do now? Well? I was born
in Bryan, Texas, which is where Texas A and M is,
and grew up in Amarillo. I was a tennis player
from the time that I was probably twelve years old on.
I played all the sports as a young kid, football, basketball, baseball,
(03:12):
but then settled into being a one sport athlete for tennis.
Played all through high school, was not really good enough
to play in college. Um. I did my undergraduate of
Texas Tech and I actually walked onto the Tech soccer
team my senior year and uh and made the team
as a as a third string bench warmer. And what
(03:32):
do you do now? I'm a police officer right at
the end of my career, getting ready to retire. Very exciting.
So the first question, Dad's going to be for you?
So kind of walk um our listeners through how you
got me started in golf, you know the way that
I remember it. Mom got kind of tired of me
being around the house, seeing that I quit playing softball
(03:54):
and you got to go to the golf course and
always left me at home. So finally she got kind
of peeved off and told you to take uh, take
me with you, and then I kind of fell in
love with it. Yeah, I would say we we both
Mom and I took a very active role in in
raising you. And when I was a patrol officer, I
would find myself off work in the middle of the week,
(04:16):
and in the summers you were at of school, and
so we were always looking for something to do. Uh.
And so I would take you to the golf course
with me when I would go play with my friends
from work. Uh. You know, it started out with just
liking to ride in the cart and then putting on
the green, and then before long you started showing some
interest in in hitting the golf ball and then learning
how to play the game. Yeah, MoMA, do you remember
(04:37):
like any specific conversation that you and dad had, you know,
kind of when I was really getting into it more
and maybe you wanted to, um, take it a little
bit more seriously. UM. I do remember when you were
still playing softball and you started, um kind of toying
around with the golf thing, and you were at one
(04:58):
of the golf courses. But Dad and you saw this
flyer and you brought it home and you brought it
into the kitchen. You're probably ten or eleven, and you said,
I want to play in this tournament. And I remember
looking at Dad and you played golf like five times,
and I said, I don't know that she's I mean,
that may not be good. And so anyway that you
(05:20):
were persistent about doing that, and we let you play
in the tournament. I don't remember what place you got,
but I do remember you shot sixty nine on nine
holes and that was your first first tournament. And I
remember seeing all the other little girls out there that
have been playing for a long time and just thinking,
oh my gosh, what's this gonna how's this gonna end? Um?
(05:43):
From that time on, you got a lot more serious
about it, and Dad and I had that conversation, um
once we started traveling with it in about making the
choice between softball and golf, and you chose golf. Yeah. Well,
and then, um, Dad, you know you kind of connected
(06:03):
me with Buck Myers, my first swing coach, you know,
at Gray Rock. Um, how did you kind of deem
that it was time to because I mean, obviously that's
not cheap, you know, getting professional lessons from a p
G a pro whether you're golf, tennis, soccer, or whatever
it is. You know, you don't necessarily want to waste
that money if it's not something your kids really gonna
put the effort into. So kind of how did you
(06:25):
make that decision? Well, I think there were a couple
of factors involved in that. One is that you were
just very very competitive by nature, uh, both on and
off the field. And course, you know, you just you
have a lot of competitiveness that you get probably from
Mom and I both. I know I'm extremely competitive. But
(06:46):
once you started showing some promise. So you saw that
flyer for that golf tournament and you asked, can I
go play in that? And I thought, she's she's interested
in competing, right, And that first tournament, you know, you shot,
you know in the sixties and the girl that one,
I think Randy Romack won that tournament and she shot
a thirty six on nine holes of gold, and I thought, man,
(07:08):
there's we got a long way to go because I
didn't have any idea that there was a ten year
old girl that could shoot two over par for nine holes. So, um,
you know you got interested in it, and I started
working with you. Is as best I could. I've played
the game recreationally, but I'm definitely not a good golfer.
Never been lower than never been lower than probably a
(07:29):
seven or eight handicap at any point in my life.
And so I knew that if if you really wanted
to progress, that we needed to get you with someone
that could could help you, right. And one of the
things that was really important to me, uh, is that
you've got all the opportunity you wanted to get as
(07:50):
good as you could get right now. It was just
something that's a value of mine. I mean, I think
there were several things in my life that I might
have been more successful with if i'd have had a
little bit more opportunity and support. And so I just
kind of I think Mom and I have decided it
was you know, we were going to just kind of
put put the time and the money into seeing, you know,
(08:12):
seeing how far you wanted to go with it. Yeah. Well, uh,
and I think that that investment definitely paid off, see,
and that I got my school paid for so good.
Good call by you guys. UM. Now let's kind of
touch real quickly and we'll kind of continue in the
next segment. But junior golf, you know, I kind of
started with US Kids and then UM started kind of
(08:33):
working into the US Kids World tournaments and Pinehurst. I know,
that's definitely one of our favorite tournaments as a family
every year. UM to be a part of Mom, what
do you kind of remember of that first US Kids
Worlds where it was like I finally made it. I
was I think I was eleven years old, maybe was
the first one that I went to. Um, How how
(08:54):
fun was that? Yeah? That was crazy? You um got
in on an alternate spot and UM not about that. Yeah,
you weren't really even invited. I don't know if Orlando
UM remember him yeah and casting on Yeah, if he
pulled some strings or if you just the alternate spot
(09:17):
opened up. But um, in terms of the fun thing,
you can't even describe how great US Kids Golf is
and how much fun that tournament is. Yeah, you know,
I think, yeah, that was definitely kind of the start, UM,
especially when when I turned thirteen and fourteen those years
when we went, you know, I think that was kind
of the start of us realizing you know, maybe I
(09:39):
can do this, um, you know good and be good
enough to to play in college. So UM. In the
next segment, we're going to discuss the transition from kids
golf kind of a high school golf and how it
UM impacted my decision to play in college. You guys
are listening to the Birdie Bunch. I'm Kennedy Swan and
this is the College Athletes Network. HM, welcome back to
(10:37):
the Bertie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. This is
Kennedy Swan and I'm here with my parents, Jay and
Laura Swan. Make sure to subscribe to my podcast so
you don't miss a show. In the last segment, we
talked a little bit about junior golf, kind of starting
with US Kids Golf, UM and kind of your local tournaments,
and then now we're kind of moving more towards a
(10:59):
world scale, uh, either US or world scale UM, and
so US Kids worlds. When I was thirteen and fourteen,
I was, um lucky enough to go from finishing next
to dead last two, you know, about seventy out of eighty,
and then I finished you know, like forty out a
(11:19):
sixty maybe, and then I finished, uh tied for fifth
when I was thirteen, and then I finished uh actually
one when I was fourteen. So mom, if I remember correctly,
that was kind of the start of UM when we
kind of started looking at the option of me being
able to play college golf, right right, Yeah, I mean
(11:41):
Dad got both saw that. UM. I think for me,
one of the things that I saw was so much talent.
I just felt like you were kind of a natural
appoint no matter what you did. And the second thing
was that you just had so much drive. And that
was the thing that UM, you know it is it
takes a lot of drive to do sports at that level.
(12:05):
And so I think there's a lot of people that
may have talent, but they don't have the drive to
be able to drive and the discipline to be as
good as you have gotten. So when I saw that,
just you know, Dad and I both wanted to support that,
and you know, UM, support you, push you whatever we
needed to do to um go as far as you wanted. Yeah. Well,
(12:30):
and I think it's definitely did a great job of that, UM. Dad.
After I had won at a fourteen, we had college
coaches kind of starting to reach out to us, and
we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. UM.
You know, I think there's a lot of families out
there that are kind of in that same situation. You know,
they've got kids, the recruiting processes starting so young. Now, UM,
(12:52):
what would you know, what first steps did you take
to try to make progress towards getting me a college scholarship. Well,
what definitely have a very clear recollection of you know,
other parents of older kids saying, hey Man, college golf
scholarships are very underutilized, and if you've got a girl
that plays golf, there's a good chance that she could
(13:14):
get her college paid for somewhere. And so my, honestly,
my very first thoughts Kennedy, were maybe she could use
golf to get into a really good school. Right. And
so I don't know if you remember, but we sent
you to Duke golf camp when you were probably probably twelve,
and my thought was maybe to expose you to uh
(13:39):
an academic institution that you might you know, you're also
very very good student from an early age, and I thought,
you know, she's going to have the potential to do
well uh in college. And I thought, maybe, you know,
college golf might be a way to either get you
into a school like you know, Duke or Columbia or
Harvard or you know, wherever you wanted to go, UM
(14:01):
and golf could could get you in and help pay
for it. So I started asking questions of other parents about,
you know, just trying to get some information. Um unfortunately. Uh.
You know, we got involved with Texas the Texas Junior
Golf Tour pretty early in your career as well, and
that their focus is to get every player that wants
(14:23):
a college scholarship a college scholarship, and they end up
getting scholarships for probably I think eighty or eighty five
of the people that that you know end up playing
all the way through the tour and finishing it out.
So uh that that's kind of the first initial thoughts
that I had with with college was actually more using
golf to get you in uh to to a strong
(14:47):
academic institution rather than uh and ended up being his
competition for national level. Yeah, for sure. Um. You know,
and I think lot of a lot of players and
parents underutilize their state UM golf associations, you know, whether
that's the Texas Junior Golf Tour or the Texas Golf
(15:09):
Association UM or even like the PGA of America. You know,
they've got a chapter in every state and they're there
for your utilization. You know. I think a lot of
times they think of these organizations is just people that
people or organizations that host tournaments were. In reality, they
really are there to help you um, advanced to the
next level. And I remember playing T j G T
(15:31):
s growing up, and once I kind of made it
to the A j g A level, you know, no
one was mad or upset that I was leaving the
Texas Junior Golf Tour. They were all excited for me
that I was going to be able to play on
the American Junior Golf Tour, you know, and everyone really
wanted the best for me, for me to be able
to step up to the next level. UM. And so
(15:51):
Mom kind of once I started getting into like these
A j G A events, you know, I was kind
of fifteen sixteen when I really started being able to
compete innees. You know, I think that really allowed me
to put my name out there a little bit more. UM.
What conversation did we have when we're kind of thinking
about starting to look at colleges. I remember talking to
(16:14):
a number of parents, you know, as we would walk
the golf course and watch tournaments and just ask a
lot of questions that those parents were two years ahead
of you, and so you know, some of the advice
I got, you know, was start putting her resume together,
to start putting together what she's done. UM, start looking
(16:35):
at colleges that you want to go to, and you
can get a swing video, you can put together whatever
you want and start sending it to colleges. So I remember,
you know, you and Dad working on that resume quite
a bit and putting that together, and then UM putting
together a little video, and then you and you and
(16:56):
I and I don't know if Dad was there or not,
but we all sat down, UM and started making a
list of the colleges that you were interested in. Yeah,
you know, and I think you guys definitely had some
influence in that, and you know, what colleges were kind
of good to look at, weren't what colleges maybe weren't
as good. UM. But I do remember putting together that resume,
(17:16):
and I kind of remember thinking, I'm so young, you know,
is this really the time to start all of this. I'm,
you know, fourteen. I'd say we started it probably when
I was fourteen, maybe just about to turn fifteen. I
was like, I don't even have my driver's license, and
I'm looking at what colleges I want to go to. UM.
But it's definitely something that kind of makes you grow
(17:36):
up a little bit quicker. UM. But I think a
j g A helps a lot with UM, the recruiting
process and kind of helps walk you through you know,
what you can and can't do as a potential college athlete. UM.
And so Dad, we kind of sat down as a
family and, like Mom was saying, made a list of
different schools that I might be interested in. And then
(17:58):
what conversation did you guys have before we went on
the cross country road trip to go look at schools. Well,
kind of to back up just a tiny dip from that. Uh,
you know, the n C double A recruiting rules at
that time would not allow coaches to contact players before
a certain age or a certain point in your high
school career. But you know, somebody gave us some wise
(18:20):
advice and said, you can actually proactively reach out to
the coaches. Uh, they can't respond to your emails, but
if you catch them on the phone, you can talk
to them. And so we took and sat down and
put that resume and uh kind of that brochure about
you together and and sat down and started talking about
colleges that might be good. I think you had kind
(18:42):
of fallen in love with with kind of the the
East when you had gone to do golf camp, because
you didn't really have any interest in staying in Texas
or Oklahoma or anywhere around here. You were really kind
of interested in looking at that part of the country.
So we sat down and just started making a list
of schools that that we're really good schools, and so
(19:06):
we put you know, Vanderbilt, Clemson, and Alabama and UM Auburn.
We looked at you know, and put put that list
together and started contacting those coaches UM. And you know,
once once we you know, we're able to get some
get them on the phone and kind of talk to him.
You can kind of gauge what somebody's interest is. And
(19:27):
it's also about that time that the coaches start showing
up at these big national golf events like the US
Girls Junior or the Peach Junior Championship. Uh. And I
don't know if you want to save that for a
later segment, but you know, yeah, so we we'll talk
about that in a little bit. But you know, that's
that's kind of how I remember sitting down and kind
of coming up with that list of schools that we
(19:49):
thought might be a good fit for you, both academically
and athletically. Yeah, I completely agree UM. In the next segment,
we're going to have some fun stories for you that
include a road trip to a bunch of universities across
the US and that kind of what happens after you
commit to a school, you know, that sense of relief,
UM and kind of the process of getting ready to
(20:11):
transition from high school to college. So again you're listening
to the Bertie Bunch. I'm Kennedy Swan and this is
the College Athletes Network. Welcome back to the Bertie Bunch
(21:00):
on the College Athletes Network. This is Kennedy Swan here
with my parents, Laura and j Swan. Make sure to
subscribe to my podcasts you don't miss a show. You
can also find me on Instagram and can you dig
it or at my website at www dot Kennedy Swan
dot com. In the last segment, we talked about the
recruiting process, kind of how we got started and how
we kind of um sat down and made a list
(21:21):
of what universities I might be interested in. UM. I
distinctly remember in my mind, I had this little notebook
and we sat down and made a chart and listing
all the different factors that was important to all of us.
You know as a family. Uh, for what you know,
what university would be the best fit for me? So
this question is for both of you guys. What factors
(21:44):
do you remember coming off of that list? I remember, UM,
obviously really strong golf program. You wanted something in the
you know, mid to southeast. UM had you had on
there in your little chart beauty factor. Yeah, that was
(22:05):
a lot of pretty campus, pretty campus. There was something
else that was kind of funny. Do you remember, Jay,
what that was? I remember I remember having food on there.
That food was a big for me yet that I
wanted to have good food. I remember strong academics. UM.
I remembered location in terms of I didn't want to
(22:26):
be anywhere, you know, I love to be outdoors. I
love to be outdoors since I was a little kid,
and I didn't want to be somewhere no offense, but
like Oklahoma, Texas Tech or somewhere that UM was kind
of in the middle of flat land, UM and harder
to be outdoors, Yes, exactly, UM. But so we were
(22:46):
fortunate enough we had UM an RV growing up that
we would drive everywhere, you know, to all the all
the junior tournaments and even all the collegiate events that
I went through. And so we packed up the RV
and went on a three week long road trip and
just toward all of these universities. I remember we went
to University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, we went to Vanderbilt, we
(23:09):
went to Auburn, and we went to Clemson. And we
ranked all of these universities in order from what we
love the most to what we did not love the most.
And I just remember all of us falling in love
with Clemson. We fell in love with J. T. Horton,
you know, who was the coach at the time, UM.
And obviously I ended up committing there when I was
(23:29):
UM sixteen, one of the best decisions I ever made.
You know, obviously the coaching situation didn't work out, but
after I committed, you know what was that kind of
um feel of relief for you guys? I think I
just got I'll speak to it just a little bit. Okay,
(23:50):
go ahead, month now, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah. I
just you know, I just remember being really relieved at
this the stress because it's so stressful, right, I mean,
you've got so many things that you're thinking about, is
my kid gonna be happy with the coach, is my
kid gonna be happy with the school? You know, how's
it going to work out financially because you know, you
(24:11):
don't always get scholarship and how much was the school
going to offer? And you have all of these things
and then just to know that that's kind of taken
care of once that commitment has made so you can
just lasting go back playing golf again. Yeah, and you know,
I think that kind of like you hinted out a
(24:31):
little bit earlier at the the PGA Girls Junior Um?
Are they side of the U s j A Girls
Junior Um? When I had j T come out and
watch and it was nice because I played really really badly,
but he was the only coach left watching me, and
it just felt me, you know, it made me feel
so um taken care of and like I was in
(24:53):
good hands to have my college coach you know, care
about me and my attitude more than you know how
I was playing. And I think that was a big
relief off my shoulders as well. Um, so mom, kind
of how did you help me transition from high school
to college? You know that's a big jump, you know,
(25:15):
and obviously I graduated a semester early. Um, I graduated
high school in December and started in the spring. Um,
that was kind of a perk of Clemson was that
they were gonna um up my scholarship if I came
in a semester early. Um, how did you kind of
help get me ready to go into the college world. Um,
(25:37):
you know that was so that offer or how that
happened came so quickly and so fast. I don't know
that we had a lot of time. You know, we
definitely talked about it and thought about a little bit.
I don't know that I would change anything about how
all of that worked out. But if I had to
do that again, the going as semester early, I don't
(26:00):
know if we would do that again. I just that's
a that's a hard transition. It's a hard transition period
of college and UM, it definitely, you know, I think
the younger a person is the heart of that transition
is so UM, I don't know, I mean, you know,
you just I don't know that there was really anything
(26:22):
to transition. I mean, you did. Your graves were great,
You're you know, you were academically completely ready for college. Um, golf,
you were completely ready for college. There just wasn't a
lot to you know, um transition, it was just being
away from home and being on your own. Yeah, I agree,
(26:43):
And that's definitely hard for for anyone. You know, that's
not necessarily something that's uh, that's just hard for me. Um, dad,
Is there anything you would change throughout the recruiting process,
you know, any um little tidbits or pieces of advice,
caution airy tales for potential parents out there. I would
(27:06):
just my best piece of advice that I could give
parents is find somebody that has already been through the process. Right.
I remember, there's a goal that you play on tour with.
Now there's a little bit in front of you. And
her dad was very generous with advice, uh, and I
used what he told me several times in the way
that we thought about things. So I can't advise parents
(27:28):
find somebody that's done it before, is a little bit
further up the road from the parents perspective, not from
the coach's perspective. Uh. And then to be patient, right,
I think that would be the one thing because there's
so much anxiety around that decision. Right, it's a big
decision both financially and where you end up going to
school and what the coaching staff is like, just be
(27:49):
patient until you find the right fit. Yes, mom. For
those not able to see the zoom call that we're on,
my mother was politely raising her hand. Wanted to add
in terms of advice, is, UM, don't make it all
about golf. Colleges are interested in other things, and you know,
(28:11):
include what your child has done in terms of you know,
volunteer work and helping others, and um, what their interests
are outside of golf, UM, what their attitudes like, how
they show up on the course, those type of things
colleges are really interested in. So UM definitely include more
(28:32):
than just a golf resume and golf information. Yeah, and
if I had to give one piece of advice, I
would say, make sure that you find a college and
a college program that really cares about you as a
person and not just you as a golfer. I think
nowadays there's so many coaches that see girls just as
a score or just as a player, even if it's
(28:53):
not golf, you know, soccer, softball, football, baseball, whatever it is.
I think there's a lot of coaches that are just
focused on the player, and I think that can inhibit
both how good you get as a player and just
as a person. You know, when I transferred to well Miss,
I had coach coaches that really believed in me as
a person and developed me as a person rather just
(29:15):
as a player. And because of that, I think they
really developed me as a player as well. UM. And
so I would say, just you know, make sure that
you're aware of, um, how how your coach sees you
when you're looking at universities, UM, and how how they're
going to kind of help you to be the best
you that you can be, not just the best athlete
(29:37):
that you can be. So all right, I support that.
That's a really that's really good advice. Yeah, all right,
Well we are about out of time. I will ask um,
any funny stories that you can remember from junior golf
if there's one that we've got time for one, if
there's one that pops into your head. The one that
(29:59):
pops into my head is being at the um US
Kids World Championships and when you won that year and
you received your trophy. Oh gosh, yeah, I forgot about that.
You don't have to if you don't want, no, it's fine,
I will. That's just yeah, that's um. That was a
long time ago. Yeah, So I was at the ceremony
(30:20):
um they called me up to go get my trophy,
and I got it, and I went back to my
seat and I put it under my seat, and I
didn't realize that they were going to call me back
up because I had made the World Cup team. And
when they called me back up, me not realizing that
my trophy was still under my seat and that it's
a glass trophy, kicks it over and the whole thing
shatters and the entire crowd just goes and I'm like
(30:44):
walking up to the stage trying not to cry and
in front of like all these different important people that
have lots of money that are funding like this whole tournament,
and I just broke their trophy that they gave me.
And luckily they gave me another trophy for being a
member of the World Up team, and that one was
tighter steel or titanium, so I wasn't able to break
that one. But uh, yeah, that was a pretty funny story.
(31:09):
Um well, all right, guys, mom, dad, thanks for being
on this episode. As always, thanks for listening to the
Birdie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe so
you don't miss an episode. I Am Kennedy Swan and
we'll talk to you soon. Can you dig it? Can
you dig it? S you dig The Birdie Bunch is
(31:39):
a presentation of I Her Radio and the College Athletes
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The Birdie Bunch is a presentation of I Heart Radio
and the College Athletes Network. Can You dig It? Can
You dig It? You digg Hi everybody, this is Kennedy
(00:36):
Swan and you're listening to The Birdie Bunch on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
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to fill out my contact form with any suggestions, questions,
or comments about what you might want to see on
(00:57):
the show. On this week's episode, we have two special guests,
my parents, Laura and j Swan. Say Hi, guys, Hi, guys,
Hey everybody. So this week they're going to walk you
through a little bit of my recruiting process, kind of
how I got started with junior golf, um, and kind
of how we made the decision to really start focusing
(01:21):
on trying to get me a college scholarship. So, um, mom,
why don't you go ahead and tell us a little
bit about yourself where you were born and raised? Um,
you know you dove in college. Tell us a little
bit about that, and then what you do now? Okay? So, Um,
I grew up in Florida, spent twenty years in Florida. UM.
(01:41):
When I graduated high school, I got a scholarship, one
of the first female scholarships for UM, you know, college
athletes because of Title nine. So I got to go
to college on a athletic scholarship. UM die aging scholarship.
Went to college and do for UM five years and
(02:05):
have always been an athlete, always enjoyed it, UM, and
my kids have always been involved in sports as well.
It's just a real important part to our life. Yeah.
And at some time n C double a junior college champion.
That's uh, that's pretty special. I guess it runs in
the family. Yeah, I guess so. And uh, what's your
(02:27):
profession now? Okay? So I am um an assistant associate
professor at the University of Texas at Austin teaching the
School of Social Work. And I'm also a licensed counselor
and I have a private practice m counseling and sword
supporting people. Very nice And uh, Dad, what about you?
(02:48):
Where were you born and raised? Any sports in college?
And what do you do now? Well? I was born
in Bryan, Texas, which is where Texas A and M is,
and grew up in Amarillo. I was a tennis player
from the time that I was probably twelve years old on.
I played all the sports as a young kid, football, basketball, baseball,
(03:12):
but then settled into being a one sport athlete for tennis.
Played all through high school, was not really good enough
to play in college. Um. I did my undergraduate of
Texas Tech and I actually walked onto the Tech soccer
team my senior year and uh and made the team
as a as a third string bench warmer. And what
(03:32):
do you do now? I'm a police officer right at
the end of my career, getting ready to retire. Very exciting.
So the first question, Dad's going to be for you?
So kind of walk um our listeners through how you
got me started in golf, you know the way that
I remember it. Mom got kind of tired of me
being around the house, seeing that I quit playing softball
(03:54):
and you got to go to the golf course and
always left me at home. So finally she got kind
of peeved off and told you to take uh, take
me with you, and then I kind of fell in
love with it. Yeah, I would say we we both
Mom and I took a very active role in in
raising you. And when I was a patrol officer, I
would find myself off work in the middle of the week,
(04:16):
and in the summers you were at of school, and
so we were always looking for something to do. Uh.
And so I would take you to the golf course
with me when I would go play with my friends
from work. Uh. You know, it started out with just
liking to ride in the cart and then putting on
the green, and then before long you started showing some
interest in in hitting the golf ball and then learning
how to play the game. Yeah, MoMA, do you remember
(04:37):
like any specific conversation that you and dad had, you know,
kind of when I was really getting into it more
and maybe you wanted to, um, take it a little
bit more seriously. UM. I do remember when you were
still playing softball and you started, um kind of toying
around with the golf thing, and you were at one
(04:58):
of the golf courses. But Dad and you saw this
flyer and you brought it home and you brought it
into the kitchen. You're probably ten or eleven, and you said,
I want to play in this tournament. And I remember
looking at Dad and you played golf like five times,
and I said, I don't know that she's I mean,
that may not be good. And so anyway that you
(05:20):
were persistent about doing that, and we let you play
in the tournament. I don't remember what place you got,
but I do remember you shot sixty nine on nine
holes and that was your first first tournament. And I
remember seeing all the other little girls out there that
have been playing for a long time and just thinking,
oh my gosh, what's this gonna how's this gonna end? Um?
(05:43):
From that time on, you got a lot more serious
about it, and Dad and I had that conversation, um
once we started traveling with it in about making the
choice between softball and golf, and you chose golf. Yeah. Well,
and then, um, Dad, you know you kind of connected
(06:03):
me with Buck Myers, my first swing coach, you know,
at Gray Rock. Um, how did you kind of deem
that it was time to because I mean, obviously that's
not cheap, you know, getting professional lessons from a p
G a pro whether you're golf, tennis, soccer, or whatever
it is. You know, you don't necessarily want to waste
that money if it's not something your kids really gonna
put the effort into. So kind of how did you
(06:25):
make that decision? Well, I think there were a couple
of factors involved in that. One is that you were
just very very competitive by nature, uh, both on and
off the field. And course, you know, you just you
have a lot of competitiveness that you get probably from
Mom and I both. I know I'm extremely competitive. But
(06:46):
once you started showing some promise. So you saw that
flyer for that golf tournament and you asked, can I
go play in that? And I thought, she's she's interested
in competing, right, And that first tournament, you know, you shot,
you know in the sixties and the girl that one,
I think Randy Romack won that tournament and she shot
a thirty six on nine holes of gold, and I thought, man,
(07:08):
there's we got a long way to go because I
didn't have any idea that there was a ten year
old girl that could shoot two over par for nine holes. So, um,
you know you got interested in it, and I started
working with you. Is as best I could. I've played
the game recreationally, but I'm definitely not a good golfer.
Never been lower than never been lower than probably a
(07:29):
seven or eight handicap at any point in my life.
And so I knew that if if you really wanted
to progress, that we needed to get you with someone
that could could help you, right. And one of the
things that was really important to me, uh, is that
you've got all the opportunity you wanted to get as
(07:50):
good as you could get right now. It was just
something that's a value of mine. I mean, I think
there were several things in my life that I might
have been more successful with if i'd have had a
little bit more opportunity and support. And so I just
kind of I think Mom and I have decided it
was you know, we were going to just kind of
put put the time and the money into seeing, you know,
(08:12):
seeing how far you wanted to go with it. Yeah. Well, uh,
and I think that that investment definitely paid off, see,
and that I got my school paid for so good.
Good call by you guys. UM. Now let's kind of
touch real quickly and we'll kind of continue in the
next segment. But junior golf, you know, I kind of
started with US Kids and then UM started kind of
(08:33):
working into the US Kids World tournaments and Pinehurst. I know,
that's definitely one of our favorite tournaments as a family
every year. UM to be a part of Mom, what
do you kind of remember of that first US Kids
Worlds where it was like I finally made it. I
was I think I was eleven years old, maybe was
the first one that I went to. Um, How how
(08:54):
fun was that? Yeah? That was crazy? You um got
in on an alternate spot and UM not about that. Yeah,
you weren't really even invited. I don't know if Orlando
UM remember him yeah and casting on Yeah, if he
pulled some strings or if you just the alternate spot
(09:17):
opened up. But um, in terms of the fun thing,
you can't even describe how great US Kids Golf is
and how much fun that tournament is. Yeah, you know,
I think, yeah, that was definitely kind of the start, UM,
especially when when I turned thirteen and fourteen those years
when we went, you know, I think that was kind
of the start of us realizing you know, maybe I
(09:39):
can do this, um, you know good and be good
enough to to play in college. So UM. In the
next segment, we're going to discuss the transition from kids
golf kind of a high school golf and how it
UM impacted my decision to play in college. You guys
are listening to the Birdie Bunch. I'm Kennedy Swan and
this is the College Athletes Network. HM, welcome back to
(10:37):
the Bertie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. This is
Kennedy Swan and I'm here with my parents, Jay and
Laura Swan. Make sure to subscribe to my podcast so
you don't miss a show. In the last segment, we
talked a little bit about junior golf, kind of starting
with US Kids Golf, UM and kind of your local tournaments,
and then now we're kind of moving more towards a
(10:59):
world scale, uh, either US or world scale UM, and
so US Kids worlds. When I was thirteen and fourteen,
I was, um lucky enough to go from finishing next
to dead last two, you know, about seventy out of eighty,
and then I finished you know, like forty out a
(11:19):
sixty maybe, and then I finished, uh tied for fifth
when I was thirteen, and then I finished uh actually
one when I was fourteen. So mom, if I remember correctly,
that was kind of the start of UM when we
kind of started looking at the option of me being
able to play college golf, right right, Yeah, I mean
(11:41):
Dad got both saw that. UM. I think for me,
one of the things that I saw was so much talent.
I just felt like you were kind of a natural
appoint no matter what you did. And the second thing
was that you just had so much drive. And that
was the thing that UM, you know it is it
takes a lot of drive to do sports at that level.
(12:05):
And so I think there's a lot of people that
may have talent, but they don't have the drive to
be able to drive and the discipline to be as
good as you have gotten. So when I saw that,
just you know, Dad and I both wanted to support that,
and you know, UM, support you, push you whatever we
needed to do to um go as far as you wanted. Yeah. Well,
(12:30):
and I think it's definitely did a great job of that, UM. Dad.
After I had won at a fourteen, we had college
coaches kind of starting to reach out to us, and
we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. UM.
You know, I think there's a lot of families out
there that are kind of in that same situation. You know,
they've got kids, the recruiting processes starting so young. Now, UM,
(12:52):
what would you know, what first steps did you take
to try to make progress towards getting me a college scholarship. Well,
what definitely have a very clear recollection of you know,
other parents of older kids saying, hey Man, college golf
scholarships are very underutilized, and if you've got a girl
that plays golf, there's a good chance that she could
(13:14):
get her college paid for somewhere. And so my, honestly,
my very first thoughts Kennedy, were maybe she could use
golf to get into a really good school. Right. And
so I don't know if you remember, but we sent
you to Duke golf camp when you were probably probably twelve,
and my thought was maybe to expose you to uh
(13:39):
an academic institution that you might you know, you're also
very very good student from an early age, and I thought,
you know, she's going to have the potential to do
well uh in college. And I thought, maybe, you know,
college golf might be a way to either get you
into a school like you know, Duke or Columbia or
Harvard or you know, wherever you wanted to go, UM
(14:01):
and golf could could get you in and help pay
for it. So I started asking questions of other parents about,
you know, just trying to get some information. Um unfortunately. Uh.
You know, we got involved with Texas the Texas Junior
Golf Tour pretty early in your career as well, and
that their focus is to get every player that wants
(14:23):
a college scholarship a college scholarship, and they end up
getting scholarships for probably I think eighty or eighty five
of the people that that you know end up playing
all the way through the tour and finishing it out.
So uh that that's kind of the first initial thoughts
that I had with with college was actually more using
golf to get you in uh to to a strong
(14:47):
academic institution rather than uh and ended up being his
competition for national level. Yeah, for sure. Um. You know,
and I think lot of a lot of players and
parents underutilize their state UM golf associations, you know, whether
that's the Texas Junior Golf Tour or the Texas Golf
(15:09):
Association UM or even like the PGA of America. You know,
they've got a chapter in every state and they're there
for your utilization. You know. I think a lot of
times they think of these organizations is just people that
people or organizations that host tournaments were. In reality, they
really are there to help you um, advanced to the
next level. And I remember playing T j G T
(15:31):
s growing up, and once I kind of made it
to the A j g A level, you know, no
one was mad or upset that I was leaving the
Texas Junior Golf Tour. They were all excited for me
that I was going to be able to play on
the American Junior Golf Tour, you know, and everyone really
wanted the best for me, for me to be able
to step up to the next level. UM. And so
(15:51):
Mom kind of once I started getting into like these
A j G A events, you know, I was kind
of fifteen sixteen when I really started being able to
compete innees. You know, I think that really allowed me
to put my name out there a little bit more. UM.
What conversation did we have when we're kind of thinking
about starting to look at colleges. I remember talking to
(16:14):
a number of parents, you know, as we would walk
the golf course and watch tournaments and just ask a
lot of questions that those parents were two years ahead
of you, and so you know, some of the advice
I got, you know, was start putting her resume together,
to start putting together what she's done. UM, start looking
(16:35):
at colleges that you want to go to, and you
can get a swing video, you can put together whatever
you want and start sending it to colleges. So I remember,
you know, you and Dad working on that resume quite
a bit and putting that together, and then UM putting
together a little video, and then you and you and
(16:56):
I and I don't know if Dad was there or not,
but we all sat down, UM and started making a
list of the colleges that you were interested in. Yeah,
you know, and I think you guys definitely had some
influence in that, and you know, what colleges were kind
of good to look at, weren't what colleges maybe weren't
as good. UM. But I do remember putting together that resume,
(17:16):
and I kind of remember thinking, I'm so young, you know,
is this really the time to start all of this. I'm,
you know, fourteen. I'd say we started it probably when
I was fourteen, maybe just about to turn fifteen. I
was like, I don't even have my driver's license, and
I'm looking at what colleges I want to go to. UM.
But it's definitely something that kind of makes you grow
(17:36):
up a little bit quicker. UM. But I think a
j g A helps a lot with UM, the recruiting
process and kind of helps walk you through you know,
what you can and can't do as a potential college athlete. UM.
And so Dad, we kind of sat down as a
family and, like Mom was saying, made a list of
different schools that I might be interested in. And then
(17:58):
what conversation did you guys have before we went on
the cross country road trip to go look at schools. Well,
kind of to back up just a tiny dip from that. Uh,
you know, the n C double A recruiting rules at
that time would not allow coaches to contact players before
a certain age or a certain point in your high
school career. But you know, somebody gave us some wise
(18:20):
advice and said, you can actually proactively reach out to
the coaches. Uh, they can't respond to your emails, but
if you catch them on the phone, you can talk
to them. And so we took and sat down and
put that resume and uh kind of that brochure about
you together and and sat down and started talking about
colleges that might be good. I think you had kind
(18:42):
of fallen in love with with kind of the the
East when you had gone to do golf camp, because
you didn't really have any interest in staying in Texas
or Oklahoma or anywhere around here. You were really kind
of interested in looking at that part of the country.
So we sat down and just started making a list
of schools that that we're really good schools, and so
(19:06):
we put you know, Vanderbilt, Clemson, and Alabama and UM Auburn.
We looked at you know, and put put that list
together and started contacting those coaches UM. And you know,
once once we you know, we're able to get some
get them on the phone and kind of talk to him.
You can kind of gauge what somebody's interest is. And
(19:27):
it's also about that time that the coaches start showing
up at these big national golf events like the US
Girls Junior or the Peach Junior Championship. Uh. And I
don't know if you want to save that for a
later segment, but you know, yeah, so we we'll talk
about that in a little bit. But you know, that's
that's kind of how I remember sitting down and kind
of coming up with that list of schools that we
(19:49):
thought might be a good fit for you, both academically
and athletically. Yeah, I completely agree UM. In the next segment,
we're going to have some fun stories for you that
include a road trip to a bunch of universities across
the US and that kind of what happens after you
commit to a school, you know, that sense of relief,
UM and kind of the process of getting ready to
(20:11):
transition from high school to college. So again you're listening
to the Bertie Bunch. I'm Kennedy Swan and this is
the College Athletes Network. Welcome back to the Bertie Bunch
(21:00):
on the College Athletes Network. This is Kennedy Swan here
with my parents, Laura and j Swan. Make sure to
subscribe to my podcasts you don't miss a show. You
can also find me on Instagram and can you dig
it or at my website at www dot Kennedy Swan
dot com. In the last segment, we talked about the
recruiting process, kind of how we got started and how
we kind of um sat down and made a list
(21:21):
of what universities I might be interested in. UM. I
distinctly remember in my mind, I had this little notebook
and we sat down and made a chart and listing
all the different factors that was important to all of us.
You know as a family. Uh, for what you know,
what university would be the best fit for me? So
this question is for both of you guys. What factors
(21:44):
do you remember coming off of that list? I remember, UM,
obviously really strong golf program. You wanted something in the
you know, mid to southeast. UM had you had on
there in your little chart beauty factor. Yeah, that was
(22:05):
a lot of pretty campus, pretty campus. There was something
else that was kind of funny. Do you remember, Jay,
what that was? I remember I remember having food on there.
That food was a big for me yet that I
wanted to have good food. I remember strong academics. UM.
I remembered location in terms of I didn't want to
(22:26):
be anywhere, you know, I love to be outdoors. I
love to be outdoors since I was a little kid,
and I didn't want to be somewhere no offense, but
like Oklahoma, Texas Tech or somewhere that UM was kind
of in the middle of flat land, UM and harder
to be outdoors, Yes, exactly, UM. But so we were
(22:46):
fortunate enough we had UM an RV growing up that
we would drive everywhere, you know, to all the all
the junior tournaments and even all the collegiate events that
I went through. And so we packed up the RV
and went on a three week long road trip and
just toward all of these universities. I remember we went
to University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, we went to Vanderbilt, we
(23:09):
went to Auburn, and we went to Clemson. And we
ranked all of these universities in order from what we
love the most to what we did not love the most.
And I just remember all of us falling in love
with Clemson. We fell in love with J. T. Horton,
you know, who was the coach at the time, UM.
And obviously I ended up committing there when I was
(23:29):
UM sixteen, one of the best decisions I ever made.
You know, obviously the coaching situation didn't work out, but
after I committed, you know what was that kind of
um feel of relief for you guys? I think I
just got I'll speak to it just a little bit. Okay,
(23:50):
go ahead, month now, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah. I
just you know, I just remember being really relieved at
this the stress because it's so stressful, right, I mean,
you've got so many things that you're thinking about, is
my kid gonna be happy with the coach, is my
kid gonna be happy with the school? You know, how's
it going to work out financially because you know, you
(24:11):
don't always get scholarship and how much was the school
going to offer? And you have all of these things
and then just to know that that's kind of taken
care of once that commitment has made so you can
just lasting go back playing golf again. Yeah, and you know,
I think that kind of like you hinted out a
(24:31):
little bit earlier at the the PGA Girls Junior Um?
Are they side of the U s j A Girls
Junior Um? When I had j T come out and
watch and it was nice because I played really really badly,
but he was the only coach left watching me, and
it just felt me, you know, it made me feel
so um taken care of and like I was in
(24:53):
good hands to have my college coach you know, care
about me and my attitude more than you know how
I was playing. And I think that was a big
relief off my shoulders as well. Um, so mom, kind
of how did you help me transition from high school
to college? You know that's a big jump, you know,
(25:15):
and obviously I graduated a semester early. Um, I graduated
high school in December and started in the spring. Um,
that was kind of a perk of Clemson was that
they were gonna um up my scholarship if I came
in a semester early. Um, how did you kind of
help get me ready to go into the college world. Um,
(25:37):
you know that was so that offer or how that
happened came so quickly and so fast. I don't know
that we had a lot of time. You know, we
definitely talked about it and thought about a little bit.
I don't know that I would change anything about how
all of that worked out. But if I had to
do that again, the going as semester early, I don't
(26:00):
know if we would do that again. I just that's
a that's a hard transition. It's a hard transition period
of college and UM, it definitely, you know, I think
the younger a person is the heart of that transition
is so UM, I don't know, I mean, you know,
you just I don't know that there was really anything
(26:22):
to transition. I mean, you did. Your graves were great,
You're you know, you were academically completely ready for college. Um, golf,
you were completely ready for college. There just wasn't a
lot to you know, um transition, it was just being
away from home and being on your own. Yeah, I agree,
(26:43):
And that's definitely hard for for anyone. You know, that's
not necessarily something that's uh, that's just hard for me. Um, dad,
Is there anything you would change throughout the recruiting process,
you know, any um little tidbits or pieces of advice,
caution airy tales for potential parents out there. I would
(27:06):
just my best piece of advice that I could give
parents is find somebody that has already been through the process. Right.
I remember, there's a goal that you play on tour with.
Now there's a little bit in front of you. And
her dad was very generous with advice, uh, and I
used what he told me several times in the way
that we thought about things. So I can't advise parents
(27:28):
find somebody that's done it before, is a little bit
further up the road from the parents perspective, not from
the coach's perspective. Uh. And then to be patient, right,
I think that would be the one thing because there's
so much anxiety around that decision. Right, it's a big
decision both financially and where you end up going to
school and what the coaching staff is like, just be
(27:49):
patient until you find the right fit. Yes, mom. For
those not able to see the zoom call that we're on,
my mother was politely raising her hand. Wanted to add
in terms of advice, is, UM, don't make it all
about golf. Colleges are interested in other things, and you know,
(28:11):
include what your child has done in terms of you know,
volunteer work and helping others, and um, what their interests
are outside of golf, UM, what their attitudes like, how
they show up on the course, those type of things
colleges are really interested in. So UM definitely include more
(28:32):
than just a golf resume and golf information. Yeah, and
if I had to give one piece of advice, I
would say, make sure that you find a college and
a college program that really cares about you as a
person and not just you as a golfer. I think
nowadays there's so many coaches that see girls just as
a score or just as a player, even if it's
(28:53):
not golf, you know, soccer, softball, football, baseball, whatever it is.
I think there's a lot of coaches that are just
focused on the player, and I think that can inhibit
both how good you get as a player and just
as a person. You know, when I transferred to well Miss,
I had coach coaches that really believed in me as
a person and developed me as a person rather just
(29:15):
as a player. And because of that, I think they
really developed me as a player as well. UM. And
so I would say, just you know, make sure that
you're aware of, um, how how your coach sees you
when you're looking at universities, UM, and how how they're
going to kind of help you to be the best
you that you can be, not just the best athlete
(29:37):
that you can be. So all right, I support that.
That's a really that's really good advice. Yeah, all right,
Well we are about out of time. I will ask um,
any funny stories that you can remember from junior golf
if there's one that we've got time for one, if
there's one that pops into your head. The one that
(29:59):
pops into my head is being at the um US
Kids World Championships and when you won that year and
you received your trophy. Oh gosh, yeah, I forgot about that.
You don't have to if you don't want, no, it's fine,
I will. That's just yeah, that's um. That was a
long time ago. Yeah, So I was at the ceremony
(30:20):
um they called me up to go get my trophy,
and I got it, and I went back to my
seat and I put it under my seat, and I
didn't realize that they were going to call me back
up because I had made the World Cup team. And
when they called me back up, me not realizing that
my trophy was still under my seat and that it's
a glass trophy, kicks it over and the whole thing
shatters and the entire crowd just goes and I'm like
(30:44):
walking up to the stage trying not to cry and
in front of like all these different important people that
have lots of money that are funding like this whole tournament,
and I just broke their trophy that they gave me.
And luckily they gave me another trophy for being a
member of the World Up team, and that one was
tighter steel or titanium, so I wasn't able to break
that one. But uh, yeah, that was a pretty funny story.
(31:09):
Um well, all right, guys, mom, dad, thanks for being
on this episode. As always, thanks for listening to the
Birdie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe so
you don't miss an episode. I Am Kennedy Swan and
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