DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
Ryann Gonzalez always has a big-picture perspective.
Last summer, the Edcouch-Elsa senior golfer decided to change her swing. To have a real chance to play collegiately, she knew her yardage would have to improve. Still, it was a risky short-term decision.
As Gonzalez tees up regional play at the Class 5A tournament in San Antonio on Wednesday after winning the District 32-5A girls individual title last week, she’s not exactly in full form. But the 4-foot-10 player knew from experience that if she wants to beat out the taller girls who can hit longer at regionals, she had to change her swing.
“I haven’t seen its full potential,” said Gonzalez, who is “trying to lean in and hold the angle more” instead of “getting up on the ball and hitting it straight up.” “I’ve seen little changes here and there. But if a coach decides to pick me up for college, it’ll pay off in the end. It means I’m hitting the ball like I’ve should.”
Gonzalez has qualified for regionals all four years of her high school career. And her big-picture thinking started three years ago.
While it took a lot of persuasion from her mother to try golf when coach Bobby Hernandez wanted Gonzalez to play in seventh grade, once she got the feel for it, she never put down the clubs.
“I knew nothing about golf. I thought it was just for old people,” Gonzalez said. “But I went out and practiced and I liked it. I saw myself continuing to improve. I knew that if I practiced, I would get better, and I liked seeing that improvement.”
After her freshman year for the Yellowjackets, Gonzalez turned in her softball cleats and volleyball kneepads for good. She often thinks about what would have happened if Hernandez, now Edcouch-Elsa’s golf coach, had never approached her mom about playing golf in middle school.
“I wouldn’t even be thinking about playing college sports, for one,” Gonzalez said. “I was good in other sports, sure, but everybody is. You’re going to find many people who are good at them, and Valley kids don’t compare to kids in San Antonio and the north in those sports. But in golf, you’ll find fewer kids who are good.
“When you’re good in golf, people want you.”
Hernandez saw in Gonzalez a hard worker and athletic talent.
“I coached her in volleyball in the seventh grade,” he said. “I remember asking her to practice on a Saturday and she went even though she was really, really sick. Her parents didn’t want her to go, but she wanted to because she didn’t want to do anything to risk losing her spot on the team.
“From then on, I knew what I was dealing with and I wanted her for golf.”
Adjusting to the change in her swing is still a process for Gonzalez. Her long game used to be her strength, and right now it’s not. But she does see a difference in yardage with her drivers and woods.
The positive signs are there.
“I’m feeling more comfortable than when I started with the change,” Gonzalez said. “When I started, I’d walk up and just pray I could hit it straight. That’s how tough it was. Now I can work with it a little more. Whatever helps me get it to the green.”
Gonzalez will be bringing a different swing to Republic Golf Club, and she will have a different make-up as well.
She had always been nervous before and during tournaments. But this year, she feels confident going into the regional tournament, having played against most of these girls throughout her high school career.
Gonzalez has also learned how to work through adversity. Hernandez said it’s common for Gonzalez to play well the first day of a tournament and then concern herself with doing even better the second day.
“It’s good to want that, but all it does is put pressure on yourself,” Hernandez said. “It can mess with your nerves. But that’s who she is. She always wants to improve, always wants to be better.”
“All the other years, I would always get frustrated,” added Gonzalez, who shot a two-day score of 176 at last year’s regionals. “When I was doing bad, it’d just get worse. I mean, for us who compete at this level your bad days are supposed to be low 80s, not 90s, 100s, which is a good day for someone else. Now if I’m doing bad, I just work with it. It doesn’t even bother me anymore.”
Gonzalez is in the top 10 percent of her class academically, participates in National Honor Society and Future Farmers of America (FFA), takes college courses, and is involved with her church and a Big Brother program.
Hernandez can’t help but think how far his star player has come considering how much time is spent off the course.
“She’s worked her tail off for whatever she’s earned,” Hernandez said. “And she’s earned a lot.”