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Coach blazes journey of fun

Michelle Connor keeps the Citrus girls golf team relaxed - and winning, too.

By DAWN REISS
Published October 9, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS - There is a noisy echo on Twisted Oaks Golf Course near the 18th hole. Bewildered high school parents are staring at their daughters.

Six girls, wearing yellow dry fit shirts and black shorts are half singing, half shouting, "C-bang, C-bang," amid giggles and golf bags. The seventh person is the ring leader: coach Michelle Connor, whose Southern impersonation of the now famous Will Hung's American Idol "she bang, she bang," take on Ricky Martin brings the Citrus golfers to more hysterics.

The joke started when the 'Canes agreed No. 2 golfer Christine Bang's name sounded better shortened to C-bang and has gone from there.

"She is just one of the kids," said senior Arien Thomas, the No. 6 golfer. "And we love her for that."

Of course, two of them love her a little more. Daughters Jordan (who plays at No. 3) and Ashton (No. 4) are on the team and a good part of the reason Michelle is the coach. The journey of fun has led the 'Canes to an unprecedented 21-0 record going into Monday's Class A, District 9 tournament at Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club. The closest Citrus has ever come to that record was a 13-0 regular season in 1988, which culminated with a district championship.

But to Connor, it doesn't really matter as long as her girls are having fun.

Connor, 38, likes to tell people she is "a coal miner's daughter who can't carry a tune in a bucket."

With her double-pierced ears, a gold hoop and diamond stud, and highlighted chocolate ponytail, Connor is as down to earth as they come. She loves Survivor and drinking cold Miller Lite. Her golf cart is a bright red replica of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 8 race car, down to the racing stripes and Budweiser logo.

Her daughters, Ashton, 14 and Jordan, 15, drive a black No. 3 Goodwrench cart in honor of Dale Earnhardt. Connor can clean a deer and has been the first one to shoot one when she goes hunting with her husband, Nathan.

"I still have not heard the end of that," he said.

She calls her players and everyone else "sweetheart." Of a long drive, she likes to say, "That's as long as train smoke." And if someone is about to make a putt, she says, "It's going to look like a homesick gopher." When someone does well, her "Atta girl" is heard far and wide.

"You just have to take her for what she is," her husband said. "She doesn't hide anything. A lot people are fake, and she's not."

Though this is the first time she has coached them, her daughters, indirectly, had something to do with her taking up the game. She didn't really understand the sport, but after she had her daughters 18 months apart, she spent a lot of time at home with them while her husband, a 4-handicap golfer, was out playing with the guys.

"I was tired of him going and me not," she said. "When the girls turned 2 and 4, I said "The heck with this, I'm getting out there with you.'

"I never had a lesson or anything. I just figured it out by myself and with him. But the whole husband trying to teach the wife thing is never a good combination."

The family connections date to when they met. It was Connor's older brother who convinced their parents that his friend, Nathan, was "a good guy" and they should let her date even though she was only 15.

The connection was instantaneous, at a football game she didn't watch.

"He is the one and only," she said.

That attachment entwined her husband and father.

"Nathan lost his father that May in a motorcycle accident on Mother's Day, before we started dating in September," she said. "He and my dad, it was a fit for both of them. They are each other's best friend."

They talk every day, hunt, fish and golf together.

When Connor's father sold his strip mining business that Nathan worked at, Connor's parents, brother, sister-in-law, two nephews and Nathan moved to Inverness with her father's other business, an RV company, while Connor attended Concord University.

Connor always knew she would coach. She competed in volleyball, basketball and track in high school.

"I didn't know what I would coach," said Connor, who has served as an assistant girls basketball and track coach and is the new Citrus girls tennis coach. "I've coached other things, but golf is far above and beyond any of the other things I've coached."

This season has been a homecoming of sorts. Connor has taught physical education among other subjects at Citrus for 13 years, but after coaching golf for five seasons, she took a six-year hiatus until this fall.

"I missed every event my girls were in," she said. "I was too busy being a coach. So I decided it was time to be Mom."

The years became a whirlwind of golf, soccer, basketball, and tennis matches. The family made a home on Inverness Golf & Country Club, so the foursome of parents and daughters could play with the loser getting stuck with household chores.

But as this school year approached, her daughters realized something was missing.

Jordan, a sophomore, and Ashton, a freshman, admit dropping hints and pleading with their mother worked their charm.

"I couldn't think of anything better than having her out there," Jordan said.

Connor's relaxed manner has transferred to the team. The 'Canes say they knew this team was special after their first match, when it won 181-188 against Lecanto, a team that has set the standard in the area and has advanced to the region tournament the past five years.

Led by freshman Briana Carlson, who averages 41, the 'Canes have continued to dominate.

Ashton is as sassy and funny as Jordan is quiet and reserved.

Jordan can hit the long ball while Ashton, Connor said, knows how to stay out of trouble and aim up the middle. Connor has to slow down Ashton's high-energy swing and shorten Jordan's, which can sometimes get too long.

"She's been awesome," Ashton said. "I love the way she organizes things. She makes it fun, but when it's game time, we all know to focus."

Golf isn't the first love for Connor's daughters, just a family pastime. She wishes they would get into it more but knows Ashton loves soccer while Jordan favors basketball.

"There isn't a better opportunity than this to be with kids and share the game," Connor said. "I wouldn't have traded this season for the world. Winning is just icing on the cake."

Dawn Reiss can be reached at 352 860-7303 or dreiss@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 9, 2005, 01:08:18]