Schiavone receives Kim Moore Spirit Award from college coaches

   In my last post, I mentioned that Chichester’s Aurora Kan won the 2010 PIAA Championship in a playoff with West Chester East’s Gabriella DiMarco.

   There was actually a third player involved in the playoff that day at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort, although she was knocked out on the first hole of that playoff. I heard her name as I watched some of the coverage of the first round of matches at the NCAA Tournament Tuesday morning on The Golf Channel. Well, Lisa Cornwell butchered her name, but I knew who she meant went she said Stani Schiavone had won the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s Kim Moore Spirit Award.

   The purpose of the award, named for former University of Indianapolis standout Kim Moore, is to recognize a student-athlete or coach who exemplifies a great spirit toward the game of golf, a positive attitude on and off the golf course, is a role model for her team and shows mental toughness in facing challenges.

   Schiavone is a Bangor native and was among Pennsylvania’s top high school players when Kan was clicking off top-five finishes for four straight years at Heritage Hills. DiMarco even said that day that it was fitting that the playoff for the state title came down to the three best players in the state.

   Schiavone had a strong freshman season at Baylor, but was staggered by the deaths of some of the most important people in her life. She transferred to the University of Mississippi and then started having back problems. She was diagnosed with a ruptured disc and had to undergo back surgery. She missed the fall part of one season, but was back on the course the following spring.

   Schiavone’s road back culminated when she flashed the kind of ability she has always possessed by firing a 65 in the final round of the Samford Invitational this spring.

   “It is such an honor to get this award,” Schiavone said on the Ole Miss website. “I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish  any of my golf or academic goals without my teammates, coaches and family. They have been my constant support system and have allowed me to flourish on the course and in the classroom and I appreciate their support throughout my collegiate career.”

   Schiavone, who majors in mathematics education, is a two-time WGCA All-American Scholar Athlete. She earned the University of Mississippi’s Taylor Medal this spring, the highest academic honor a student can receive at Ole Miss, awarded to less than one percent of students.

   I’m guessing Schiavone was rooting for those Baylor Bears as Lauren Whyte, a freshman from St. Andrew’s, Scotland outlasted Duke’s Lisa Maguire, a freshman from Ireland, in a wildly entertaining 24-hole marathon Tuesday that put Baylor in Wednesday’s championship match against Stanford.