{"id":14004,"date":"2022-12-21T12:07:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T17:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=14004"},"modified":"2022-12-22T11:55:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T16:55:42","slug":"its-the-follow-through-that-makes-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/its-the-follow-through-that-makes-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s the follow through that makes the difference\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Briahna Willis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Briahna Willis<\/strong>\u2019 experience playing golf was one that many of her competitive counterparts shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being introduced to the game at a very young age by her father, it wasn\u2019t a sport that she was very passionate about. Although she would start playing in events before the age of 10 years old with her share of successes, she was more inclined to play other sports like softball, basketball, and volleyball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I hated golf, but I just didn\u2019t like the sport (at the time),\u201d Willis, who was one of several University of Maryland Eastern Shore students who received their degrees during the Dec. 16 commencement<\/a>, said. \u201cBut when I got to eighth grade, my dad told me to pick a sport to play for high school because in order to be great you have to pick one and continue to master it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willis turned to her faith to determine what her chosen sport would be. Following a month of prayer and fasting, she decided to pursue golf at a competitive level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her freshman year in high school, she not only had to deal with the lack of opportunities to compete at the state and conference tournament levels but also had to deal with bigotry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Arkansas,\u201d she said, \u201cAnd some of my teammates didn\u2019t like a black girl playing golf. So, I had some racist comments said to me by my teammates and their parents. But I knew I just had to keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a sophomore, Willis made all-conference as an individual while her team won all-conference. Those honors ultimately fueled a dominating junior year culminating with a state championship and being named the top player in the state and two more all-conference honors including in her senior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Willis started to look at college opportunities, she was planning to attend a school in Portland, OR where she would play golf. Those plans changed as that school discontinued its golf program, ultimately leading to her chance to play Division I golf at UMES and hushing naysayers who said she could not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at UMES where Willis made her mark as a three-time scholar-athlete, two-time coach\u2019s award winner, 2020 team MVP, and was selected to represent the women\u2019s golf team at the Name, Image, Likeness 2022 Athlete Summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, during her time at UMES, she found herself after difficult times that included the loss of a best friend during Willis\u2019s freshman year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was just a lot of stuff adding on top of it, to where I had a point where I had an encounter with God and it changed my life and I\u2019ll never be the same,\u201d she said. \u201cCollege really makes you the person you are today however you decide to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of her change, Willis said her outlook was the most important part of making progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
During her time at UMES, Briahna Willis made her mark as a three-time scholar-athlete, two-time coach\u2019s award winner, and 2020 team MVP. She was also selected to represent the UMES women\u2019s golf team at the Name, Image, Likeness 2022 Athlete Summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was able to change my outlook, it really let me know how grateful I was to be in a place that molded me to become who I am,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s something special about UMES that transformed and shifted people I know. I\u2019ve heard a lot of people\u2019s testimonies indicating the same thing. My life won\u2019t be the same and I love this school because it has created growth in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that every college can say that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now equipped with her experiences as a Pro Golf Management major, Willis now moves on to her future as a PGA Director of Golf Instruction at Tulsa Golf in Tulsa, OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willis said her experiences with the game of golf not only offered a variety of opportunities she never dreamed of but it also helped shift her mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn golf, as in life, it\u2019s the follow-through that makes the difference,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you hear and see things that are said in the classroom and you hear the things that are said by your friends and you don\u2019t apply the things and shift to what you\u2019re given in those conversations it\u2019s not actually following through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust apply the things that are given to you and follow through and it will shift your thinking in a higher way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Briahna Willis\u2019 experience playing golf was one that many of her competitive counterparts shared. Being introduced to the game at a very young age by her father, it wasn\u2019t a sport that she was very passionate about. Although she would start playing in events before the age of 10 years old with her share of…Read more \u2018It\u2019s the follow through that makes the difference\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":14020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14004"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}