While many Baker students were relaxing on the beach over spring break, the men’s and women’s golf teams were helping victims of hurricane Katrina.
Both teams traveled to the Gulf Shores in Alabama to play a few rounds of golf, but also to help with the hurricane relief efforts.
The teams traveled with University Minister Ira DeSpain, Assistant Professor of Sociology Jacob Bucher and a group of Baker students.
This is the 16th year DeSpain has taken a group to the Gulf Shores to work with Habitat for Humanity.
Head golf coach Karen Exon said the idea of the trip was to not only play golf, but to give back to a community devastated by the hurricane and to enjoy some time off from school.
“It was a great trip, and if anything, both programs came back tighter,” Exon said. “The people we worked with were very impressed with them.”
Junior Zack Rockey said the trip allowed for the team to bond, while also allowing opportunities for good golf practice.
“We basically paid to go down there and do work,” Rockey said. “No one complained once, and everybody had a blast. We got to play golf and also help Habitat for Humanity.”
During the workdays, the team also worked with the National Wildlife Refuge, where students did everything from landscaping to clearing hurricane debris.
While some were tearing up destroyed landscape, others were planting thousands of sea oats on the shore.
According to seabean.com, sea oats are essential in helping prevent erosion on the shoreline, and help stabilize the dunes.
“We did some extreme landscape removal,” Exon said. “We cut down trees and took out the roots so a group could come behind us and plant new ones.”
When the teams weren’t working, they had the opportunity to play on two courses and even practiced bunker shots on the beach.
Sophomore Krista Yaktine said both courses allowed for helpful practice.
“It challenged us on placement shots, and the greens were fast, which was really nice,” she said.
The Baker men’s team returned from its weeklong trip to face a tournament Saturday and Sunday in Hesston and Newton while the women play Monday and Tuesday in Fulton, Mo.