On October 6th, Riverside Brookfield High School students sent off State qualified athlete Mayan Covarrubias. Covarrubias is a sophomore this year at RB and went to state representing the RB golf team.

A lifelong golfer, Covarrubias has been playing golf since she was young, but only got competitive about the sport when she entered her freshman year of highschool.

“I’ve been playing golf competitively since freshman year, I’m a sophomore now. I used to play with my dad a lot when I was younger, so I would say about five years” Covarrubias said.

She qualified for state this year by competing in a series of tournaments. She started by competing at a conference, then to regionals, then she reached the required score in sectionals to advance to state. State competitions took place October 7th and 8th in Decatur Illinois. This was Covarrubias first time going to state in her two year golf career.

“It was a good experience, I myself didn’t play that well which didn’t make it more enjoyable, but it was just good to be there and to have made it that far.” Covarrubias said. 

She has made many amazing and outstanding accomplishments. Covarrubias is a multi-athlete playing basketball and golf but one of her biggest accomplishments was going to state. Over the last year, Covarrubias has made a big leap in her game and play. Only playing for two years, she has made her way onto the varsity team. 

“Going to state was my biggest one [achievement], but just the overall season from where I was before last year, I was good but this year I felt like I definitely made a big leap in my game and in my play and I just felt like I’m just proud overall of the year.” Covarrubias said.

Looking forward, Covarrubias has plans to take her athletic career further. Alongside golf, Covarrubias also plays basketball competitively at RB. 

“I’m trying to get as far as I can go with golf. I also play basketball so I kind of handle both of them, and whichever gets me farther I’m willing to take it,” Covarrubias said. “I do look forward to playing some sport in college, hopefully it’s golf, hopefully it’s basketball, I don’t really know.”

Being on a competitive team can sometimes  be stressful and hard to balance with other aspects of life. Covarrubias noted that sometimes balancing school and golf was a struggle, but there were some other hardships.

“The hardest part about golf is staying mentally in it. I feel like there can be a lot of times where you wanna get down on yourself but you have to remember that you still have to keep playing and keep going. As much as if it is a team sport, it’s not really because you are an individual and sometimes only worry about yourself.”