Heart to Heart with Lady Saints Golfer LeeAnn Noble

By: Jodie Borchert

The Lady Saints golf team has taken the Peach Belt by storm the past few months. Being introduced to North Georgia a mere two and a half years ago, the team has improved their stroke average by nearly fifty strokes, with one of the leading competitors being freshman LeeAnn Noble.

North Georgia freshman golfer LeeAnn Noble

Noble competed in all five tournaments last semester, averaging 24 over par, with a low round of 80. The freshman came to North Georgia from Gainesville High School where she played four years of competitive golf. While there she was named Senior All-Star golfer, Area Golfer of the-Year, 2011 Region runner-up and 2011 Hall County runner-up.

Impressive enough for a collegiate student-athlete, but the story that the scorecard doesn’t share is her battle with heart problems.

In seventh grade, when LeeAnn was only 12 years old, she began having difficulties walking and competing in her then favorite sport of cross country. Not long after that she became sick with pneumonia and was forced to take a break from running. After a visit to the pediatrician, she learned that her heart was four sizes bigger than what it should be.

“I was scared, and I cried twice; once on the way to the doctors and once coming home from the hospital,” she said, “but I never once thought I was going to die.” She was immediately sent to Egleston Children’s Hospital where they diagnosed her with cardiomyopathy, determining that her heart was only doing 20% of the job of a healthy heart.

Things began to move quickly. She was rushed on to the heart transplant list and received a viable heart just four hours later. At 12 years old her life had taken a turn from a leisurely day of cross country and homework assignments to white walls, IVs and doctors. She spent four weeks recovering in the intensive care unit, watching others undergo the same transplant as she had just gone through.

“People die in there all the time,” she noted. “There was baby that had a heart transplant just before me, and he didn’t make it through. We get the opportunities that other don’t have. It changes what your goals are.”

Prior to leaving the hospital, Noble was told that she would be able to have a wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a foundation that is supported by the North Georgia athletic program and all of NCAA Division II, due to her life-threatening condition. The Foundation supported her wish to visit the Big Apple where she toured the city without having to wait in any lines and sat front row at the Broadway show Wicked.

Eventually LeeAnn will need a new heart, as the average heart transplant lasts 15 years, but for now she says she can’t worry about it.

“Sure, I get tired sometimes, but everybody does. Years ago, transplants were unheard of, so twenty years from now I’m sure they’ll come out with a heart that lasts forever” she explained. Day to day she says that her life really isn’t affected, aside from the fact that she takes medicine twice a day, and  that she lives her life carefree.

Noble will continue to live as any other college student and will continue making strides within North Georgia’s golf program regardless of her past. “I really don’t think I have limitations,” she proclaims as she reaches for her putter to resume practicing, leaving no doubt that the Lady Saints golf team has got heart.

North Georgia Baseball Preview

By: Jodie Borchert

With the competition baseball season on the brink of the first pitch, the North Georgia Saints are eager to prove their place on the collegiate baseball preseason top 40 poll. With the Fall season under their belt and some intensified strength-building routines, the 34-man troop will not have any winter dust to shake off this Spring.

P Blake Hobby

As a team that has built a reputation for cultivating Major League draftees (with leading catcher Troy Snitker taken by the Atlanta Braves in the 19th round of the draft this past summer), North Georgia will look to some new and some returning players to guide the team. Among the top returners is senior pitcher Blake Hobby, who ended the 2011 season as part of the starting rotation and with a 1.76 ERA. Junior outfielder Kenny Bellavance, who earned a spot on the 2011 Peach Belt All Conference Team, in part by maintaining a stellar .317 batting average, also returns. In addition, freshman newbie Tremayne Toorie, who earned First Team All-County honors while attending Brookwood High School, joins the Saints. It seems as quickly as professional baseball is able to snatch the blue and white boys, North Georgia is able to round up a new crowd of prospects.

OF Kenny Bellavance

Unpredictable Georgia weather, along with an abundance of talent has led to less time on the field and more time in the gym. Although the conditioning routines haven’t changed a whole lot from previous years, their presence in the work-out room has been extended and intensified. Strength and conditioning coach Blake Podson, believes that the time taken from the field and put into the gym has aided the team’s strength and endurance, and that we should expect to see a leaner, tougher team than ever before. And I know as a fellow student athlete, I have spotted the baseball guys in the weight room more often than ever within the last couple months.

The Saints fell in the middle of the Peach Belt Preseason Poll, trailing behind Armstrong, UNC Pembroke, Georgia College, Columbus State, and Francis Marion. The team looks forward to rematches against the highly ranked West Florida boys, who suffered their only series sweep under the lights of Bob Stein Stadium, and another opportunity to face-off with the Division I Florida State Seminoles on April 18^th. However, in the words of Head Coach Tom Cantrell, “You can’t look at any game more importantly than another.” This same strategy that has carried him and his team through 12 consecutive winning seasons will continue to reign unto this Spring’s promising harvest.

The season kicks off this weekend in sunny south Georgia, at the Comfort Suites Classic.

Click HERE for the 2012 North Georgia Saints Baseball Media Guide

Meet Jodie Borchert

By Jodie Borchert

I’m not the college student-athlete that played her sport since she was old enough to walk. Before I picked up my first 9 iron I played nearly ever other sport including soccer, softball, ballet, tennis, equestrian, and basketball. Heck, at the age of 7 I even decided I was going to be in the Olympics competing in the sport of ping pong (which unfortunately still has not been passed by the Olympic committee).

Nope, I didn’t pick up golf until my junior year of high school. But in the short four years I’ve been playing the game, I have grown in it.

Most people see golf as a game of plaid pants, old men, and a quiet field. For me, golf has shaped my view of the world.

It’s a simple game. Not much is needed to play, but the return is significant. Competitive golf demands honesty and integrity to uphold the rules of the game. The same morality is required in our day to day lives, because as nearly every college student has experienced, we are constantly faced with choices that can make or break us. However, competition is not the sole reason for playing, I play to meet and learn about others, and most importantly, learn more about myself.

Jodie lines up a putt

The game is played almost entirely between the ears; if you think about it too much, you will fail. You have to play the ball where it lies and go on with your game. And no matter how you’ve played, at the end of the day you can always look back and say you learned something new.

I am proud to call myself a North Georgia Saint. I am surrounded by awesome teammates and a great coach. Being a student-athlete has taught me how to prioritize and be more efficient on and off the golf course. With my graduation date being a mere year and a half away, I’ve quickly come to the realization that there’s more than playing golf and going to school everyday.

My future plans don’t involve a career with the LPGA (gasp!) but I hope to stay connected in sports and in golf with whatever career I choose. Being a golfer and a college athlete has embedded in me a toolbox of knowledge that will help me to succeed in life after college.