“It’d kind of been beaten into me since the time I was young that this was the path I was on,” she says, “even though I didn’t always believe that’s where I was headed.” Overnight, her options narrowed: Here was a future LPGA star. Hers was the type of talent that couldn’t – and shouldn’t – be suppressed. “Don’t get me wrong, I was cutthroat and wanted to win individually,” she says, “but to do it as a team was the greatest feeling.” By 15, when she swept the Oregon Women’s Amateur, Stroke Play and Public Links, it was obvious her best sport. Vaughn’s individual gifts were unmistakable but what she always enjoyed more was the camaraderie of team sports volleyball was her first and true love, and some of her fondest memories were giddily riding the bus home after matches. The youngest of three girls, Vaughn grew up in a house overlooking the local country club and was part of an intensely golfy family (her older sisters both played at Portland State) taught by her father, Chris, a CPA who had no formal golf background other than a zeal for the game. Growing up in the small coastal town of Reedsport, Oregon, Vaughn was the prototypical star athlete: point guard in basketball, outside hitter in volleyball, state champion golfer. That’s a question that’s been asked in grade school for eons, and it’s a question that apparently was answered for Monica Vaughn without any of her own input. And of course, they had known her for years as intrastate rivals Radley actually considered Vaughn the least favorite player he’d ever coached against, because she’d always beat them and then afterward would giggle and play with his eldest son.Ī post shared by Monica Vaughn THAT QUESTION CAN be answered, here’s another, this one more elemental: What did you want to be as a grownup? An ebullient 23-year-old, she’d be relatable to today’s players. A former All-Everything at Arizona State, she was highly credible. In some ways, it’d be an inspired choice: An Oregon native, Vaughn would be returning home. He had to make a hire, soon.įinally, one day that summer, Wildcats head coach Laura Ianello burst into his office. Each of his would-be assistant coaches had fallen through. A rising star in coaching circles, Radley had been tabbed to lead Oregon, but his staff was incomplete with the new season fast approaching. For weeks Derek Radley and his boss had been blubbering messes, devastated they were splitting after helping guide Arizona to victory in the 2018 NCAA Championship.
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