Northern Illinois golf team returns to competition after tragedy
HILTON HEAD ISLAND – The Northern Illinois University men’s golf team shot a 325 on a blustery day at Wexford Plantation and finished in a three-way tie for last place at the Francis Marion University-hosted Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate, nearly 60 shots behind the winning score. For the event.
The Huskies didn’t set any scoring records, but they did record a win for their school and took a step toward transitioning from tragedy to normalcy.
The two-day tournament marked Northern Illinois’ return to athletic competition after a 10-day break due to the events of February 1. 14 campus shootings that prematurely ended the lives of five students. Monday’s opening round also coincided with Back to School on the NIU campus.
While members of the golf team were not at DeKalb, home to NIU’s main campus located 65 miles west of downtown Chicago, with their classmates, the players attended a series of services before arriving in Hilton Head on Saturday, including last Thursday’s memorial that was attended by the entire athletic department.
Senior Zack Jecklin, who was Northern Illinois’ top individual finisher, said while the team was disappointed with his score, the tragedy has put things in perspective.
“Obviously we wanted to play better and we’re not happy, but punishing ourselves is not something we’re going to do,” said Jecklin, who tied for 42nd overall in the event. “That (the shooting) was always on our minds.”
For the members of the golf team, as well as for everyone in the general student population, the name of their school has been attached to a tragic event very similar to the one that occurred at Virginia Tech after an attack even more violent on his campus last April. Head golf coach John Cleary said adjusting to the new connotation surrounding the college’s name is certainly one of the hurdles his team now faces.
“It’s going to be a year of different things,” Cleary said. “It’s unfortunate that when people see northern Illinois, that’s all that comes to mind. But for us, we hope it has brought the school together and allowed everyone to come together. As a team, we will not use this as a no excuse.” and move on.”
“I’m proud of it (the university) and I’ve never been more proud of NIU than I am right now,” Jecklin said. “The school handled everything as well as anyone in the country could have.”
The trip was a chance to escape the gloomy atmosphere hanging over the NIU campus, but it was also a chance for the Huskie golf team to escape the harsh winter the Midwest has been experiencing.
“This is the first time I’ve seen green grass since November,” Jecklin joked about the conditions at Hilton Head compared to DeKalb. “We all would have preferred to be here. We look forward to this trip every year and get to such a beautiful place. Getting out of there was nice because there was absolutely no one there.”
“There are about 25,000 students at NIU and there has hardly been a car on the street,” Jecklin added. “This week, we’re back to normal.”
“From a team standpoint, it was good to be here,” Cleary said. Kids love this ride. There’s a bit of an attraction to coming back with your friends, but we only have 10 or 11 tournaments, so missing one or two is a big percentage of the season. For the most part, they are happy to be here. They’ve all been great.”
While the Northern Illinois community continues to focus on getting back on track and dealing with the tragic events, the golf team hopes to take advantage of a sharp downturn and represent their school to the best of their ability.
“We still have high expectations and believe we can compete in the conference,” Cleary said. “We have some talent and I would like to see us regularly in contention. We have the skill level, we just need to develop some confidence and of course get out there and practice.”
“First, you want to play well and do good things for NIU and show your pride,” Jecklin said. For me personally, it’s my last semester and I don’t want to look back and think I wish I’d done it all over again. We have a long way to go, but we will use this (tournament) as a learning experience. We hope to be better than in the past.”
NIU team members wore red and black ribbons on their hats this week to honor their fallen teammates and remember the tragic event. Other organizations also plan to pay tribute to the school.
Coach Cleary said the Virginia Tech men’s golf team will wear NIU logo caps for the rest of the spring, showing the solidarity between the two universities that have dealt with similar pain.
The Chicago White Sox will wear Northern Illinois baseball caps in their first spring training game today when they play the Colorado Rockies.
It will certainly be a difficult task to completely forget the events of February 2nd. 14 and Jecklin expects that to continue for a long time.
The Bloomington, IL. The native said he fielded questions from other competitors about things like his location at the time of the shooting and the atmosphere in DeKalb. He said they were always well-intentioned and preceded by the assumption that he must have been asked about it a million times.
“There’s always a constant reminder,” he said. “It’s something we’ll have to live with from now on.”
Northern Illinois returns to competition on March 17, when the Huskies travel to Little Rock, Arkansas for the UALR First Tee Intercollegiate.