Former Captain Lends Hand As Assistant Coach

Robbed of a semester of her sophomore year by a harrowing J. Crew accident, Jacqueline Rooney, last year’s women’s golf captain, is staying close to the women’s golf team as a volunteer assistant coach even though she is ineligible to compete.

“I broke my leg my sophomore year before winter break started,” Rooney said. “I was working at J. Crew and I stepped off a ladder in the stock room.”

NCAA guidelines consider a competitor to have fully participated in a season if he or she has attended 20 percent of the tournaments. Having competed in every tournament that fall, Rooney’s athletic sophomore year was considered complete, even if her academic one was cut short.

She will finish her concentration in Psychology and last semester at the college in January.

Making the best of this unfortunate quirk of the rules, the women’s golf program welcomed Rooney back this fall as a volunteer assistant coach.

According to Rooney, Director of Golf Fred Schernecker hired her to help the team with tournament scheduling, transportation, tournament entries, and team statistics.

“I’m an assistant in the sense that I help [the team] out and make sure that the only thing they have to worry about is golf,” Rooney said.

Coach Kevin Rhoads is more than happy for Rooney’s contributions to the team both in her logistical work and in her attitude. “Jackie is a very special person and part of our team and we definitely still think of her that way,” Rhoads said, “she is a constant positive, steadying influence.”

He added that, “because of her unique situation not competing for [a spot in the tournaments] every week the girls are very comfortable with her and she can relate to them very well.”

Last year, during what she called a “pace-setting year”, Rooney anchored the team as captain. But she claims her job this year is the best part of her golfing experience at Harvard.

“You really feel like you can make a difference in everybody else’s life on the team because they come to you,” Rooney said.

Rooney is happy to help out this year’s relatively young team. Between freshman Mia Kabaskalis, and sophomores Sarah Harvey, Claire Sheldon, and Caroline Vik, underclassmen comprise nearly half the team.

“I would never step on [captain Jessica Hazlett’s] toes, I really try not to,” Rooney said. “But at the same time even if she wanted to talk to me about something it’s nice to be a resource.”

Commenting on this year’s success, Rooney draws parallels to last year’s similar results. The Crimson prevailed at the Dartmouth Invitational as champion, taken second at the Yale Fall Invitational, and placed second or third at the Princeton Invitational in both this season and last season.

This year, however, Harvard won the ECAC championship, which was rained out last year.

Rooney pointed to the Ivy League Championships in April as the weekend that could allow this year’s team to outshine last year’s squad, which placed fourth.

Lending her experienced perspective, Rooney noted the changes she sees taking place in women’s sports but golf in particular. “There are more and more girls who are taking up the sport,” she said. “[So] the younger ones coming in tend to be better than the older ones already here.

“I’m sure If you looked at the qualifying scores from my freshman and sophomore year and compared them to the ones from my junior and senior year, I’m sure that they’re astronomically different.” Rooney said, referring to the in-practice scores used to determine which teammates compete in tournaments.

Rooney is pleased to see the number of golfers rising as well as the level of play.

“Golf has been the pillar of my college experience. You do other things and obviously academics come first, but you need that sort of centering balance. I can’t imagine being here without it,” she said.

Reminiscing about her time as a player, Rooney praised the depth of the Harvard program and the completeness of her training as a golfer. “Last year we went to Monterrey and San Francisco and we played Pebble Beach and Cypress Point and the San Francisco Golf Club. I think I’ve already reached the peak of my golf life,” she said.

Looking ahead beyond her final semester, Rooney is considering work in consulting or perhaps with Wilson Sporting Goods in their women’s golf division. In the end, she hopes to stay close to the game she loves.

“I just hope there are opportunities to tee it up every once in a while,” she said.