Piedmont, S.C. - At Wren High School, there is a new trophy on display.
"It was so much fun," said student-athlete Davis Merritt. "We always lose somehow but we won it this year."
Merritt and the other members of the Wren High School Boys Golf Team recently won the 2023-2024 AAA State Championship.
"I remember looking back in 7th and 8th grade and thinking 'my senior year, we’re gonna have a good team.' I knew last year we had a good team too and we fell just short and it stung a lot," said student-athlete Hampton Yarborough. "It hurt falling that short but just to be able to come back this year and really end my career on a high note especially because I played really good at the tournament too, so just to be able to end my career on a high note it was just awesome.”
The team clinched the win in a 2 hole playoff.
"It was like watching a Disney movie because you know, to win a championship whether it's a national championship in college or a state championship in high school, even if you’re the best team on paper, you still have to get a lot of luck and have a lot of bounces the right way," said Wren High School Athletic Director Stan Yarborough. "We obviously achieved that over those two days and it looked like for a while on the back nine we were down 4 or 5 shots and so we were a little discouraged there. Then we survived a one hour weather delay, got back out on the course and somehow the boys fought through and tied it up and then we had to go to a playoff. We were joking that we didn't think we had any air to breathe for about an hour while the playoff was going on but as a coach and as a parent, we’re so proud of them."
The Wren High School Boys Golf Team is one of several teams at the school to earn a state championship in recent years and they hope to keep the momentum going.
"I go out there now like I go out there every couple of days to check and see what the boys are doing and I see those young guys out there putting in work, grinding and it's great to see that because I know that I don’t need to jump in and be like 'hey guys, get out there,'" said Head Coach Tyler Barnes. "I don’t need to do that because they want to be winners, they want to follow this up and keep this thing going.”