Sophia Kay has been a key member of the best Logansport girls golf teams in decades.
The Berries are on their best run since the 1992 state finalist team led by Kasia (Bannon) Minnick and coached by Mark Muehlhausen placed 10th at the State Finals.
Kay has been the tie that binds the successful teams of the last four years, along with coach Abby Lundy.
Kay was hoping to cap off her career with her first trip to the IHSAA State Finals and she was able to reach that goal at Saturday’s Lake Central Regional at Sandy Pines Golf Club. She shot an 83 on difficult course in windy conditions to earn the third and final individual spot at state on a non-advancing team.
“How awesome is it to have a girl advance,” Lundy said. “I think the last one was Kristina [Kniesly] and then before Kristina was myself. So I’m proud for her and all of her hard work that she’s done to get to that point to advance.
“I know Mark Muehlhausen had teams go back in the day with Kasia and those girls. But we have not had a lot of state finalists for girls golf in our program, so hopefully this is the start to a new trend.”
Kay is a four-time regional qualifier, a two-time conference champion and a sectional champion.
She has had the advantage that her father, Matt Kay, is a scratch golfer himself. He is now the general manager/golf professional at Coyote Crossing Golf Club in West Lafayette.
“My dad, he has taught me almost everything I know about golf, at least mechanics and things like that,” she said. “He helps me with everything like lessons and when we actually go out and play he shows me situational things. He’s taught me the mental aspect too, that one shot really does make a difference.
“I remember one time before conference my sophomore year, I was kind of just giving up and my dad, this was during a practice round and my dad was telling me on the tee box, ‘Sophia, you can’t just give up because one shot really can make a difference.’ And so on the 17th hole, it’s a part three, he hit his tee shot and when we went up there, he ended up making a hole-in-one.”
It was a lesson that Kay won’t soon forget. And it’s one that she’s used often in her high school career.
But she wasn’t always a golfer. She’s been around the game her whole life, but it took her awhile to fully embrace the sport.
“I’ve grown up around the game of golf, but I haven’t always played competitively,” she said. “When I was younger I would always go with my dad and my grandpa [Mike Kay] and we’d go and I’d go hit around the golf course with them. But I started playing competitively around eighth grade or the summer going into my freshman year of high school.
“When I was in middle school I tried doing softball and I played that for a while. And those two sports, the different types of swings, they’re really hard to do both. And I didn’t really care for golf back then, but I dropped out of softball and I went to my dad and said, ‘I really want you to teach me how to play golf.’ And so that’s kind of when I started to fall in love with the sport. And now here I am four years later about to go to state.”
Kay’s legacy includes being a member of the most successful Lady Berry golf teams since the 1992 team.
Her freshman year the Berries won their first sectional title since ’92. Her sophomore year they won the NCC title, their first since 1980. The Berries also cracked into the top 20 rankings for the first time since ’92. Her junior year the Berries advanced out of the sectional as a team despite losing four seniors to graduation. Her senior year they won the first Hoosier Conference title in any sport and finished ranked 19th in the state.
This year the Berries often shot lower than they did two years ago despite having a young team outside of Kay with two sophomores — Izzy Lundy and Natalie Graham — and two freshmen — Chloe Wilburn and Kendal Kranz.
“I think as a team, from where we were at the beginning of last year to where we were at the end of this year, it’s just so much improvement,” Kay said. “I think part of it comes with when you have a group of girls that are just so close together like we have been. It makes you want to put more effort into it. It makes you want to do better. It makes you want to bring each other up. And I think that’s partially why you’ve seen from even the beginning of this year to the end of this year, we’ve improved so much as a team.”
Lundy credited Kay for her leadership.
“Her senior leadership has made this season so wonderful,” she said. “I am proud of how she stepped up as a senior this season to help with our young team.”
Kay also excels in the classroom and plans to golf in college. She has a 4.29 GPA and is in the top 5% of her senior class. She plans to study pre-med, pre-pharmacy or forensics in college.
She said she has been in contact with the golf programs from Virginia Wesleyan, Kentucky Wesleyan, Marian University in Wisconsin, Stevenson University, Earlham College and St. Francis University in Fort Wayne.
LHS is planning a state sendoff for Kay at the school at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
She has a practice round scheduled for Thursday and will tee off at 8:40 a.m. Friday on the back nine at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel. Round 1 is Friday and Round 2 is Saturday. All golfers play both rounds.
“I think when I was at regionals I put a lot of pressure on myself that I probably didn’t need,” Kay said. “Since all that pressure’s gone, I want to go out to state and I really just want to have fun. I know a lot of people from my school’s going to be there. I think our team is going to come on Friday at least to watch me play. So I know I’m gonna have a lot of people in my corner and I’m just gonna go and play the most fun round of golf that I’ve ever had.
“I hope that since I’m not going to have as much pressure on me, that I’m not going to be as nervous because my entire goal this year was to just try and make it to state.”
