Later this month senior Kiley Forrest will begin her fourth and final year on the golf team for the Cougars and veteran coach Rick Kirkhart is looking for big things from her.

“I’ve had her since she was a freshman and she’s such a joy to coach. She’ll be our number one bag this year and we’re expecting big things out of her.”

Though she enjoys golf, Kiley’s athletic love is softball. She has played travel ball since she was seven or eight, played school ball through her junior year and will be attending Connors State next year on a softball scholarship. As for golf?

“My dad golfs and so I’d go out with him and learned to play and then my freshman year I was asked to join the school golf team. I decided to give it a try and I enjoyed it, and I’ve stuck with it all through high school. My highlight was breaking 100 last year and I medaled in two tournaments.”

This year she’ll also take on a leadership role with the team.

“She’s a good senior leader by helping the other girls make their game better to help the team,” said Kirkhart.

“I enjoy getting to talk to the girls and being their support system and encouraging them because I had some good senior leaders who did that for me when I was a freshman and so I think it’s really important that I take on that role for them,” said Kiley.

In her spare time, Kiley works as a certified nursing assistant and plans on getting an associate’s degree in allied health at Connors with an eye towards becoming a sonographer and possibly a registered nurse.

As far as the overall team outlook for the Cougars, Kirkhart looks for improvement.

“I think we’ll be better this year with Kiley back as well as players like Maddison Hood, Tayla Conn, Summit Deam and I think Abby Enlow will be a dark horse for us this season.”