LA MESA –
Kathleen Crossley isn't a practicing Taoist, but her golf game and personality mirror the yin and yang philosophy.
The Helix High sophomore's cool demeanor masks a hot intensity within.
Kathleen, 15, isn't like most young athletes. A bad hole or an off round doesn't result in self-loathing, but a wise “I'll get 'em next time” approach.
Kathleen's yin, her quiet calmness, comes from a natural feeling on the golf course. Before she could walk, Kathleen joined her parents – Brad and Lorena Crossley – for numerous rounds at Mission Trails or Cottonwood. They'd use bungee cords to strap Kathleen's car seat into the golf cart.
“When I was little, I just always saw all this green and trees everywhere, and it was like, 'Wow!'” Kathleen said. “It's home.”
Her teammates at Helix say they are tuned into Kathleen's balanced approach to the game.
“I've never seen her get angry playing,” junior Juliann Hitt said. “She doesn't give into distractions at all. She's really collected when she plays. If she's had a bad hole, she shakes it off, says it's a bad hole and moves on to the next one.”
Frank Theroux, the Highlanders coach, sees nothing but good things in the future for Kathleen, who seems to be a natural in the classroom as well as on the golf course.
“She's a model student-athlete, and from a golf standpoint she is the epitome of what the sport is all about,” Theroux said. “She does her homework off the course and then the matches are like her tests, and she passes them. She knows what she has to do.”
When most kids are growing up, vacations mean something like Disneyland, Hawaii or visiting the grandparents.
The Crossley family isn't much for sightseeing. Vacations mean golfing, hitting the slopes and scuba diving. This is where the aggressive yang comes in.
Kathleen grew up in a competitive family. Brad is a lifelong golfer, and Lorena picked up the game not long after their marriage. Before Kathleen got busy with high school, the Crossleys would hit the golf course on a weekly basis and play each other pretty fiercely.
“We always set a goal. Like my goal forever was to beat (Brad) and her goal was to beat me, which she's already done,” Lorena said. “Now she needs to beat him, and I think she could if he'd ever play her.”
So far, Kathleen's balanced approach has worked. As a freshman last season, she was a medalist in 14 of 15 matches in which she competed for Helix's varsity and was the Grossmont South League Player of the Year.
This season, Kathleen has medaled in all 12 matches and cut her nine-hole scoring average by nearly three, to 38.7.
“I've had some pretty good golfers, but she's the best,” Theroux said. “And that's quite a compliment to her. She's by far the most talented player that we've had in our program.”
