Greenwood Christian golfer Ian Reed tied for 30th at the state finals last season.
Daily Journal file photo
In most cases, being a two-sport athlete gives far more than it takes.
Greenwood Christian senior Ian Reed, who is in the process of transitioning from jump shots to tee shots, makes for one of the county’s better examples.
Slated to be the Cougars’ No. 1 golfer, Reed, who plays basketball in the winter months, readily acknowledges the benefits of being part of two GCA teams.
“It’s definitely one of those things you try to balance,” said Reed, who finished the 2022 golf campaign by tying for 30th at the state meet in Carmel with a score of 80-76—156. “I didn’t want to look back and regret not giving my all to basketball season.
“That being said, we have a golf facility at school, and I would hit there two or three times a week for about 40 minutes.”
In other words, enough to maintain some sort of rhythm swinging a club.
That, and the practice time Reed is putting in now, should begin paying dividends on April 1 when Greenwood Christian opens its season at the Edinburgh Golf Invitational at Timbergate.
GCA’s tour of Johnson County the first few weeks of April continues the following two Saturdays at invitationals hosted by Greenwood and Center Grove, plus a road dual match against Whiteland.
Last season’s Cougars, led by Reed and since-graduated Sutton Piercefield, made history by qualifying for regional as a team; Reed, meanwhile, became the second Greenwood Christian athlete to advance to a state final in any sport.
“Ian is the kind of kid that it doesn’t matter where I played him in the lineup,” fifth-year GCA coach Gary Hamilton said. “He was more excited about the team than himself. We have egos. Ian just doesn’t display his.
“He’s going to shoot the same score no matter his starting position.”
Reed’s younger brother Noah, a sophomore, is expected to be the Cougars’ No. 2 player this spring, while senior Parker Satre, last season’s No. 5, will make the move to the third spot in Hamilton’s lineup.
Both were, like Ian Reed, part of the starting lineup on a GCA basketball squad that assembled a 19-6 record and No. 5 ranking in Class A before losing a 61-57 heartbreaker to host Indianapolis Lutheran in the sectional championship game.
And though the two sports might not sound as if they are linked, in Reed’s case they are.
“I don’t think I have the prettiest swing in the game, but I feel that playing basketball and playing golf my whole life, I’ve developed a mental toughness,” said Ian, who scored an 82 at sectional as a junior and followed with a 75 during the Providence Regional at Champions Pointe in Henryville.
“I’ve been in basketball practices, and I’ve been in golf practices. The basketball practices can be tougher, for sure.”
Others vying to round out Hamilton’s lineup this spring are seniors David McLaughlin and Blake Shewmaker, sophomores Zach Haynes and Ben Comerford and freshman Will Jackson.
During this past fall, Reed committed to play men’s golf at Cedarville University, a Division II school located 30 miles east of Dayton, Ohio.
Reed, who carries a 3.99 grade-point average, plans to major in accounting.
The Yellow Jackets, coached by former Cedarville golfer Ryan Bowen, play in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Reed will be their first player from Indiana since the 2011-12 school year.
For Reed, though, the weeks ahead are devoted solely to leading his teammates.
Should that include a second consecutive trip to state, all the better.
“One thing is I just want to get back there, and have the attitude that I’m going to play the best I can,” Reed said. “That’s the goal, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make it happen.”
Correction: March 22, 2023 at 10:12 a.m.
A previous version of this story incorrectly said Reed was Greenwood Christian Academy’s first state finalist in sports. Reed is the second; the first was runner Allie Dalton, who placed 21st at the 2015 girls state cross country meet.
