At the Fore-front

4/26/2024

By Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement

Student and faculty leaders nurture burgeoning disc golf club into a competitive team

Trinity has long fostered a love and stewardship of the natural world, from the local prism with its natural campus and the nearby James River to a global focus with the International Baccalaureate Programme and the Students for Environmental Action (SEA) club. It has long been an element within curriculum and with Richmond's preeminent high school Outdoor Program, and now there is a new group that is immersed in the natural world, celebrating the intersection of nature and recreation: Trinity’s Disc Golf Club.

The seeds of the disc golf program began germinating with faculty sponsor and coach Louis Ferro several years ago. Ferro, a Latin teacher, began at Trinity in 2019 and was immediately struck by the nature-based focus of the school and campus. Having been a recent convert to the world of disc golf himself, he saw Trinity as a place where the sport could thrive and allow students to participate in a recreational activity that fosters camaraderie and has a distinct flavor of inclusion.

“Disc golf is complementary and in the same vein as our outdoor program, and I saw the vibrancy of that group and thought this would dovetail well with it,” says Ferro. “It marries the idea of being outside in nature and then caring about the natural world as a result.”

Disc golf is also accessible to almost anyone, according to Ferro. “It is such an approachable activity,” he says. “Our team has a wide swath of students with all kinds of interests.” In July of 2023, the Professional Disc Golf Assocation developed rules for adaptive disc golf, which debuted at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games (https://pva.org/news-and-media-center/recent-news/making-disc-golf-more-inclusive-for-people-with-disabilities/).

Ferro laid the groundwork, quite literally, walking around campus, exploring course-design options. He worked with colleague Michael Stratton ’02, head of the Outdoor Program and teacher of Trinity’s Active Trailbuilding class, to brainstorm course location. Two students, Sam Gorey ’22 and Griffin Wright ’22, were instrumental in founding the club. “They both shared my enthusiasm for bringing disc golf to Trinity and were great ambassadors for the sport,” says Ferro.

After navigating property lines and boundaries, Ferro next turned to the River City Disc Golf Club (RCDGC) for help with securing baskets (i.e. holes) for the course. The nonprofit group seeks to grow the game in the metro area and proved instrumental in expanding the reach of Trinity’s club.

With Gorey and Wright graduating in 2022, Ferro has relied on the sustained, two-year commitment of Silvio Troy ’24 and Drew Kidwell ’24 to steer the burgeoning project. Both stepped up as president and vice president, respectively, of the club, making announcements, garnering support and leading as players. The pair spent much of their own free time clearing the course and honing their games. “I joined the club sophomore year and then junior year when I became president, my passion really started to take off as I understood the game more and more,” says Troy. “Drew and others pushed me to play local courses and keep improving.”

Troy has also been an invaluable leader with Trinity’s sports broadcasting/media network, TESPN. He can often be seen running from the disc golf course to the sideline to announce an athletic contest. “I’m excited to keep exploring the skills I have developed through broadcasting with TESPN and also to continue to hone my disc golf game,” he says. “I hope the club continues to grow and allows even more people to enjoy the sport. I definitely plan to continue to play in college and beyond.”

And this spring Ferro and the group shared the inaugural opportunity to take disc golf to the next level with a competitive team. Their first competition was April 13 with the Virginia Interscholastic Disc Golf Association hosting an event in Palmyra. The team finished third in the competition and was energized by the competition. It also was a great preview for the group, as the disc golf team will complete another historic first this season when Trinity hosts its own competition on Sunday, May 19. It will be a Professional Disc Golf Association sanctioned event, and Ferro is thrilled to bring the event to Trinity’s campus.

“This is yet another example of how students can ‘discover their path’ at Trinity,” says Ferro. “We see Trinity as a destination for people wanting to explore disc golf, and while this event is the culminating one for this season, it signals the beginning of Trinity’s leadership in high school disc golf in Richmond.”

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About “Connections”

Connections is a regular online column, written from the first-person perspective of Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement:

In this space, I have the privilege of sharing stories of Trinity students, alumni, and faculty and staff who are carrying our mission beyond the boundaries of campus. Many of these stories might not make the headlines, but they will illustrate how every member of the Trinity community has a unique path to discover, and the ability to make an impact on both the Trinity community and the world beyond.

I am fortunate to have been a part of this community since my own adolescence. I have been a student, a teacher, a coach, and an administrator, and in these roles I have witnessed the school’s growth and evolution through the years. We have grown in size as well as spirit.

Stories here will capture how seeds planted at Trinity have taken root and flourished into full-grown passions. You’ll also read stories of those in our community who bring their gifts from outside to help us learn. At Trinity, we seek to develop lifelong learners, and stories here will illustrate real-life examples of that beautiful symbiosis.