Not this time.
Not again.
After missing qualifying for the state golf tournament by one stroke in his sophomore and junior years, Jeremy Hanna wasn't going to let it happen again.
As a senior, the Calvert golfer has had the focus of a laser during Lasik surgery.
The result has been a trip to the Division III State Golf Tournament on Friday and Saturday at North Star Golf Resort.
"It feels real good. It's one of the goals I've had since I started playing," Hanna said. "It's a huge relief. I would have been really disappointed if I didn't get there."
His coach, Bob Williams, isn't surprised Hanna is headed there.
"After Jeremy had qualified for sectionals, I was saying good-bye to him and his family. I said 'OK, I'll see you in Bowling Green,' Williams said of the district tournament site. "He said 'You'll also see me at state.' And he had that grin. That's when I really realized that it wasn't a whimsical dream but a dedicated dream that he had. And he went out and got it done."
Calvert has sent boys teams to the state tournament, but Hanna is the first boy in school history to qualify as an individual. The last time Calvert played at the state tourney was two years ago when Hanna's former teammate Heather Steiner made the trek to Columbus as a senior. The last male representation was in 1982, when the Senecas went as a team, six years after they won the state title.
Making history is no stranger to Hanna. He set the school mark for 18 holes with a 69 earlier in the year at Nature Trails. He also tied his own school mark with a 32 at Bob's Countryside this year.
And Hanna would like to continue that trend when he tees off No. 10 at 9:40 a.m. Friday.
"I want to win. I mean that's the whole reason to go," Hanna said. "I just need to play my own game and keep doing what I've been doing."
So what makes this year different than previous years?
He still practiced at the same sectional and district tournament locations in preparation for this year. But he also sought additional help. He went back to an old swing coach he was using in Columbus, Gerry Hammond, as well as meeting with a sports psychologist.
The latter was evident this year.
"My mental game has improved so much," Hanna said.
Hanna said he knows his limitations now.
"When I make a bogey, I know I can make a birdie to get it back," Hanna said. "I'm more accepting of my mistakes now because it's impossible to perfect golf."
Williams is the third high school coach Hanna's had in his four years and he said Williams' style has aided him as well.
"It's been an adjustment each year, because they're all completely different coaches," Hanna said. "I like how (Williams) lets us do our own thing. We know what we need to work on and what we need to do so he lets us go."
Williams said coaching Hanna has been pretty easy.
"When I became Jeremy's coach, he was already an established golfer. He knew how to play the game. He knew his swing. The improvement, I think, is his constant focus this year. He's never lost his focus," Williams said. "He's only had one, what he would call a bad round, all year. All the rest have been very solid scores in the 70s. Each time he went out, you could just see he was working harder and harder."
He said Hanna has learned to leave bad shots on the hole they happened.
"I'm lucky. I got Jeremy his senior year. The bogeys bother him or the three-putt or the missed chip; they bother him from the green to the next tee," Hanna said. "But then it does seem to be over. Now he can erase the bad thoughts before the next hole and get back into his routine. I've seen him be able to erase bad shots and move forward on the next hole a lot of times."
The Calvert mentor said focus is the key at the state tourney.
"That's the No. 1 thing for any golfer, not just Jeremy, when they go into a situation like this," Williams said. "It's two long days. It's very steep competition. The weather is going to be a little on the chilly side so you're not going to be all loose and everything. So the guy who can just set his mind on each swing is the one that's going to come out on top."
One of his former coaches at the high school, Ryan Bloomfield, invited him to play North Star back before Hanna's freshman year.
"We played from the tips and I was like 13. It was really long. It was like 7,400 yards but I did pretty well," Hanna said.
Hanna said the course, which had some "weird holes," could play to his favor as he remembers it being more forgiving than others.
"I don't remember much, but I think I remember it being pretty wide open and that will help me a lot because my biggest problem is the accuracy of my driver," Hanna said. "So if I keep the ball in play, I'll be fine."
His irons and wedges are the strongest part of his bag, and he hopes he can get his woods to that level as well in college, where he hopes to play and major in exercise science.
Playing at the college level would just be the next step in the growth of a golfer who picked up the game when he was 10. He found himself wanting to tag along and play when his cousin, Thomas Dunne, would come to town to play with their grandfather, Bob Hunt. That evolved into his grandfather picking Hanna up from school so the two could go play nine holes together.
As he grew up, he found himself spending more and more time on golf, and less and less on other sports he had played growing up: football, baseball and basketball. He still plays CYO basketball but no other sports outside of golf for the high school, once again, focusing his efforts on the game that consumes him.
Williams said his senior star should be able to parlay that focus into results this weekend.
"It's focus. As I've talked to Jeremy, one of the few thoughts I've tried to put in his head is that he's got the swing. It's Jeremy's swing," Williams said. "He has to stay with it and not try to force things to happen. You can't force things to happen. He just has to stay with his swing on every swing and then the good things happen. And unfortunately, that's patience. If he shows 36 holes of patience and focus, he's going to do just fine."
