Budzelik Becomes LA’s First Golfer At State

For the first time ever, Livingston Academy has a golfer participating in the State Tournament at Willowbrook.

Junior Zoey Budzilek shot a 34-over 106 on Tuesday, and Head Coach Buddy Sells says that he hopes she takes this experience and gains confidence from it.

“My hope for her is that this gives her a little bit of confidence and that she sees that (she belongs),” Sells said. “That she can say ‘Hey, I qualified at the region. I shot a really good score, and I deserve to be here.'”

Sells goes on to say that he believes this kind of confidence should trickle down to the rest of his team.

“Sometimes these kids, for whatever reason, don’t have the confidence in themselves that I as a coach have in them,” Sells said. “I just think this is a huge step for her and her teammates so they can say, ‘We can do this.’ We haven’t been in the large school division for more than three years and we’ve had three girls and a boy make it to regions last year, and we have (Zoey) who made it this year.”

“We have the building blocks, we’ve taken steps in the right direction. We just need to continue doing that.”