Team's Only Senior Aces Leadership Role

Hinsdale Central golf is synonymous with success, no matter whether the girls team or the boys team happens to be teeing off.

The girls squad has placed among the top 10 teams in the state five of the past seven years, including a second-place finish at the 2006 Class AA state meet. The boys team also has made its mark, with numerous top-10 finishes since 2000.

In recent years, standouts such as Erika Oldenkamp, Samantha Postillion and the Lederhausen sisters—Alex and Becky—have left a legacy for Red Devil girls golfers coming up through the ranks.

Erin Ahern joined the team as a freshman in 2007—the year in which Alex Lederhausen helped lead the Red Devils to fifth in Class AA while finishing seventh individually.

"I definitely looked up to Alex Lederhausen," Ahern says. "She was a senior when I was a freshman, and it was a learning experience I got watching her – how she acted on the course, how she treated her playing partners, her practicing habits. It was a great experience to watch her and learn from her."

The following year, Postillion became Hinsdale Central's senior leader. Once again, Ahern observed and learned.

"She was also a premier player," Ahern says. "I watched her practice, so it was a great learning experience."

All the while, however, Ahern was taking what she learned from Lederhausen and Postillion to improve her own game.

Two years later, a young Hinsdale Central team is looking to Ahern—the Red Devils' only senior—for advice and leadership. And Ahern is eager to lend a hand.

"It's a big responsibility because I know how I looked up to the seniors," she says. "I try to pass on to them that golf is not just about talent—you have to practice. There's a reason we have practices scheduled so we can use the time, and also to focus on your own game. It's all about what you need to work on."

Second-year coach Janelle Marconi says Ahern's knowledge and leadership is invaluable.

"She takes a lot of tasks on by herself," Marconi says. "(Assistant) Coach (Andy) Laux and I might talk about it, and before we even approach her, she's already one step ahead of us. She has a great maturity level and handles herself very well. I do look to her as kind of like (having) a third coach because she's a great motivator with the younger kids."

Since last year, Ahern says she's been honing her skills at tournaments and improving her short game. She competed in Illinois Junior Golf Association and Mid-American Junior Golf Association events, and won a tournament in Decatur.

"My coach really focuses on 90 percent of your practice time should be 100 yards and in—short game, chipping, putting, pitching—so I'm trying to work hard to improve that," Ahern says.

"Tournaments help you stay sharp so you don't enter into the fall with your first tournament and (you're saying), 'Oh man, I have to re-learn this from a year ago.' It's also just good experience because during the summer, practice can get boring or tedious. It's a good way to keep your skills up and get recognition and play with some really good juniors."

Last season, the Red Devils qualified for state as a team and ended up capturing sixth place. Ahern's two-round total of 157 (77-80) put her in a tie for 15^th place individually—a score that led her squad.

Ahern arguably registered the shot of the tournament—held at Hickory Ridge Golf Course in downstate Carbondale—when she recorded a hole-in-one on the 126-yard par-3 No. 13.

"That was pretty special," she says. "When it first happened, it didn't really hit me. And then when I went back, I said, 'Wow it's really nice to write a one on the card.' "

This season, the sky's the limit for Hinsdale Central, which has several key golfers back from its state qualifying team, including juniors Jacqueline Bruns and Carlee Schwartz, and sophomores Danielle Brown and Rosanna Lederhausen—yes, another Lederhausen coming up through the ranks. The youngest of the Lederhausen siblings tied for 28^th at last year's state tourney.

"We've just got to keep focused and think about the next meet," Ahern says. "The next meet or the next tournament is the most important one, and not look on how we did it last weekend or the last meet. I think we can go really far."

After Erin Ahern plays her final round of golf for Hinsdale Central, Marconi believes Ahern will rank right up there with her predecessors.

"I think she is definitely top five, top 10 among the Hinsdale Central female golfers, for sure," Marconi says. "There have been a great many that have come through, and I'm sure there's more to come. She's definitely going to leave her mark, and a wonderful legacy to leave, as well."