Moorestown Coach Recognized as Coach of the Year

Her name may be on it, but Moorestown girls’ golf coach Charlotte Heenan considers her imminent Coach of the Year award a team—not an individual—honor.

Heenan will receive the award, for her team’s 2011 season, from the National Federation of High Schools at a ceremony on March 25 in Edison.

Last year, Moorestown’s girls’ golf team finished fourth in the state after qualifying for the state championships for the second year in a row. They finished the season 7-4.

“I look at it as an honor that’s bestowed upon the team,” Heenan said. “These girls have to be dedicated.” As one of only two girls’ golf teams in South Jersey, “they’re spending three to four hours on the road just to get to a match.”

She said when she took over the team six years ago, the program was still very young and “pretty loose,” especially in the eyes of someone like Heenan, who comes from a “pretty intense athletic background.”

“My philosophy is, if you’re going to play, you’re going to commit,” she said. “It took me about three or four years to get the kids to bite on that … If you are sending them those messages, they’re going to respond to that.”

In talking about what the award meant to her, Heenan kept coming back to her players, particularly , her No. 1 player from last year, who graduated, and Kelly Hwang, her No. 2, who transferred to David Leadbetter Golf Academy. And though she sees 2012 as , Heenan has confidence in this year’s group as well.

“We’ve made leaps and bounds,” she said. “We’re just a team that keeps plugging away.”

The accolades and wins and championships aside, perhaps the greatest reward golf has bestowed upon Heenan is the life lessons it has taught her and her girls.

Golf, more than any other sport, can open doors later in life, she said. It’s where business gets done in the corporate world.

But even more than that, Heenan said, “It’s a sport that teaches you more about life than you even know while you’re playing it: honesty, integrity, commitment, patience.”