NAPPANEE — NorthWood Girls Golf excelled in 2025. Behind five seniors, the Panthers clubbed their way to the state finals. They ultimately came up short, then had to start a whole new chapter.
Those five seniors moved on, leaving behind a wealth of inexperience and questions entering the 2026 season. NorthWood welcomed back just two golfers, Cora Coffin and Mia Jarrell as juniors, but no seniors are on the roster.
The first four matches of the season gave the new-look Panthers a chance to learn both on and off the course. While there have been expected growing pains, they believe improvement is happening every day. A big part of that improvement has been Coffin, who with increased confidence and leadership has been a significant factor this season.
“I think I’m doing a good job of [being a leader],” Coffin said. “But it’s definitely something I continue to grow in. It’s actually helped push me to be a better player by being a leader because I want to do my best and put a good attitude on and sometimes in golf that’s really difficult. So I think it’s pushed me to continue to be positive and show up every day with a good attitude and smile.”
NorthWood has competed in five invitationals so far this season and competed against Bremen High School Wednesday night. The Panthers have not finished higher than ninth, with each invitational having at least 13 teams.
With such an extreme roster turnover, a learning curve was expected. The Panthers’ top five currently consists of two freshmen, Chloe Myers and Madeline Yoder; Payton Everingham, who just started playing golf; and the two returners.
“NorthWood Golf traditionally has been very good,” said assistant coach John Everingham. “So maybe just a bit of a rebuild in terms of the girls golf program. But the girls get along really well. They’re enjoying the game of golf and they are getting better every match.”
Head coach Jordan Anglemyer has preached mental toughness to his young squad this season, a mentality Everingham believes they have adapted very well to. Despite some high scores early in the season, he has not seen the girls waver.
Coffin’s leadership and growth in her own game have helped the team as well. She leads the team in average nine-hole score with 48.6 and has the low round score of 43 for nine holes. Payton Everingham is right behind her at 50.6 and Jarrell has an average of 56.4.
Coffin said she lacked confidence last year as a sophomore, but has gained significantly more thanks to her work in the offseason.
“I spent my whole offseason from October to now doing lessons at Stonehenge,” Coffin said. “I’ve been on the golf course almost every day, so I think a lot of practice makes it easier.”
While the Panthers are improving day by day on the course, they are also bonding away from the game. They were not a super close group at first, but have unlocked more of a bond and friendship since the start of the season, which Coffin believes will help them improve their golf games.
“We’ve started to hang out a lot outside of practices,” she said. “We have a lot of fun on the green and on the course. We stayed at hotels for a couple of our matches because they were far away and we got to hang out a lot and go out to eat. I think our team has become a really positive environment and we have been able to lean on each other and it’s been a good season so far.”
“I think the bond will continue to grow which is going to help our team,” Coffin added. “Especially next year, since we have a young team, we will be able to continue to grow and I think it will be a really exciting thing to see.”
NorthWood has eight more matches before the Northern Lakes Conference Tournament on Sept. 12. While the team is young and inexperienced, they have built a bond that has helped them on the course and they believe numbers will continue to go down.
“We’ve had a couple of birdies on the scorecards; we just have to eliminate some of the big numbers on some of the harder holes,” Everingham said. “I think what you’re going to see from this team is some improvement from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Some big improvement.”