More than a Game

Tendonitis is evident in Anni Dibert's left wrist. It has been bothering her for four months.

Still the lone female on Christ Chapel's golf team was not about to allow pain to prevent her from spending July 13-20 at the First Tee Life Skills and Leadership Academy at Kansas State University.

The academy is held each year. Its objective is to instill character skills into its pupils and help them improve their fundamentals of golf.

First Tee is an initiative of the World Golf Foundation, a nonprofit organization based at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla. Its Prince William County chapter is affiliated with Prince William County Park Authority.

Dibert, who joined Prince William's chapter when her family moved here in 2007, returned satisfied with what she learned.

"I learned about leadership qualities and what you should look for in a leader," Dibert said. "I learned more about myself. I'm going into my senior year and this was my last year to participate in it.

"How I can be a leader going into my senior year and what I can leave behind for those coming after me?"

First Tee of Prince William County coordinator Jenny Vogt estimated about 96 students partici-pated in the 2010 academy. To participate, students must reach a certain level of the First Tee chapter. They must fill out an application and answer its essay questions. They must have two letters of recommendation. First Tee coaches from around the country and from chapters throughout the world evaluated the nearly 300 applications submitted this year and chose those they felt were worthy of attending this year's program.

Trip expenses were covered by First Tee.

Golf and other activities dominated Dibert's stay in the Midwest. She and her fellow stu-dents took part in a golf tournament and worked on a community service project to help a family, whose patriarch had been deployed to Afghanistan.

They also took part in a ropes course monitored by Kansas State students.

But Dibert applied the academy's most important lesson to her golf game.

"I learned [about] STAR, which is Stop, Think, Anticipate, Respond," Dibert said. "They really enforced that last week. In golf, you have to think about every shot you're going to take. In life, you have to learn about every decision you make. I can't just make a decision. I have to stop and think about it."

Dibert had a sense of how the program would go. She attended the academy in Nashville, Ten-nessee in 2008. An exciting feeling preceded her attendance this year as she looked forward to seeing friends she has made by attending the program.

"She was not just for the golfing skills she was going to get exposed to," her mother Leilani said. "She has a lot of friends throughout the country in First Tee, a lot of close friends she's in contact with. She's probably in touch with about 15-20."

Christian Dibert, a rising sophomore for Christ Chapel, can relate to his sister's experience. Christian attended the academy in 2008 and 2009. He came away each time with different experi-ences.

"I went through it the first year and [I realized] it's not all about golf," he said. "We talked about golf, but we talked about leadership. That's what the acad-emy's about. It showed the qualities of a leader.

"The second year I went, I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen. They totally caught me off guard. I learned so much more about golf because I'd kept up with the game since [my first trip]."

Highlighting Anni's recent trip was her fifth place finish in the girls' division of a tour-nament played a day after the community service project.

The finish, though, was bittersweet. The tendonitis refused to subside and Dibert now has a brace on her wrist. She anticipates returning to golf on Aug. 5.

But she won the respect of her competitors by playing with a nagging injury.

"At one point, my hand was the size of a softball," Dibert said. "I took my glove off and everybody's like, 'I can't believe you're playing on that.' Everyone was calling me Paula Creamer because she had reconstructive hand surgery and she was back playing."

Her tenacity made the journey to Kansas worth it.

"All the guys I played with were like, 'If you're this good with your hands swol-len, we'd hate to see how you play when you're not hurt.'

"I wouldn't trade it for anything. It definitely was the best week of my life."

Staff writer Robert Daski can be reached at 703-530-3913.