Cretin's Celia Kuenster Has Her Eye On The Ball
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) - As the high school state golf tournaments kick off on Tuesday, defending 3A state champ Celia Kuenster is one golfer to keep your eye on.
"Golf is always something that I was good at, and then when I got older, I started wanting to play more and more, and then I just kinda got hooked," she said.
Celia's approach to the game of golf is quite simple: perfection is not an option.
"I think it's like you can't like have perfection, but like you still strive for it, and you still try to get better every day. There's no way you're ever gonna be perfect, but same time it's like a goal to work towards," she said.
Just a sophomore at Cretin-Derham Hall, she won the state 3-A title last year - becoming the first freshman to take top honors. And this season she's hoping to repeat that feat.
"It's more me trying to push myself than anyone else, cuz I know it's like there, but same time I just, it's like my goal, and it's like nobody else expecting of it, it's just all on me," she said.
Raiders coach Chad Anderson has seen Celia's course of action firsthand.
"She has an incredible drive, and there's a good balance of her personal commitment to the game. So she knows where she wants to be, and she knows what it takes to get there. So there aren't very many surprises at all with how well she's doing," said Anderson.
"I try to be humble. I don't try to like make golf my entire life…golf is a big part of it, but at the same time just keeping like the same values and everything I've had like my whole life," she said.
The 16-year-old's spin on the sport that she loves is spoken like that of a sage pro.
"We're kinda born with like a passion for something. But at the same time like you just kinda every time you do it you just keep wanting to come back, and you want to get better and everything like that. The drive is…what kinda makes it fun," she said.
