Young golfers recognized at EFSC Youth Golf Camp

Young golfers recognized at EFSC Youth Golf Camp

Jaylynn French admits she could barely hit the ball the first year she came to the P.J. Wilson and Henry Scott Minority Youth Golf Camp.

On Thursday, French was named the recipient of a two-year academic scholarship to Eastern Florida State College.

She has come a long way in the seven years she has been participating in the camp.

"My mom has always pushed me to play golf and this means I have accomplished more than I could ever have imagined," said French who has two years left at Rockledge High. "When I started here I was not very good at all and now I am thinking about joining the high school team. I have to give credit to coach (Roosevelt) Jackson who has been pushing me for years."

French plans to study nursing when she graduates from Rockledge High School and wants to be an OB/GYN nurse. Her principal, Bradley Merrill attended the ceremony on Thursday to share in her big day.

"Eric Moss talked about consistency and Jaylynn is consistent. She shows up early to camp every day to help set up and is here every Saturday as well," said Eastern Florida State College golf coach Jamie Howell who helps run the camp. "When you talk about consistent, she is consistent and I am more than happy for her to receive this scholarship."

About 100 young golfers were recognized on Thursday for completing the camp, receiving a certificate and an Eastern Florida State College backpack.

Special recognition was also given to campers in three groups: Roosevelt Jackson's group for beginning golfers who have never played; instructor Isaac Johnson's intermediate golfers and EFSC Golf Coach Jamie Howell's group for experienced athletes.

In the beginner group, Arianah Parrish was the Most Improved, Christinia Lynch received the Sportsmanship Award and Best Attitude went to Austin Smith.

In the Intermediate group, Kayla Bissland was the Most Improved, the Sportsmanship Award went to Enzo Boffo and the Best Attitude went to Cerayah Colclough.

In the Experienced group, Dylan Benson was the Most Improved, Sportsmanship Award went to Brianna Kertz and the Best Attitude went to Emma Carver.

Associate Provost of the Eastern Florida State College Cocoa campus Michael Cadore welcomed everyone to the 27th annual P.J. Wilson and Henry Scott Minority Youth Golf Program Award Ceremony.

"First of all I would just like to recognize P.J. Wilson and Henry Scott. They loved the game of golf and wanted to share the game with everyone and have done that by starting this camp 27 years ago," Cadore told the guests at the Community Dining Room on the Cocoa campus.

Assistant Director of the TRiO Student Support Services at Eastern Florida State College Eric Moss was the guest speaker and he shared a couple of key things he has learned to help students, parents, educators and administrators.

"Commitment and consistency. Parents, without consistency and commitment you would not have been chosen for the job you do. At the end of the day, if you want to be successful in whatever you are doing, you have to be consistent and committed," said Moss who told the audience stories about getting better at video games to beat his wife as well as how he found success at one of his first jobs. "For you to go from good to great, you don't have to do a whole lot, you just have to tweak a couple little things to go from good to great. And if you are already great, great to extraordinary just takes a couple of tweaks and to go from extraordinary to phenomenal just takes a tweak or two. If you can tweak your consistency and commitment, you will be out of this world!"