Athlete of the Week: Spence, Passanante defy odds with hole-in-one, 300 game

A magical two-day stretch last week saw two local high school athletes defy the odds of their sport.

On one end of the spectrum, Sebastian River junior golfer Ryleigh Spence, in just her third high school match of her life, holed a driver on the par-3 seventh hole at Meadowood Golf and Tennis Club in Fort Pierce in a match against Lincoln Park Academy on September 6.

The very next day, Fort Pierce Central senior bowler Charlie Passanante, a First Team All-Area selection as a junior achieved a perfect game of 300 in a match against Somerset College Prep at Superplay USA in Port St. Lucie on September 7.

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For both achievements, TCPalm is recognizing Spence and Passanante as Co-Athletes of the Week for Sept. 5-10 and for both, their stories are unique with the expertise each have for their sport.

Prior to joining Sebastian River’s team this season, Spence had only dabbled in golf through putt-putt and an occasional outing at BigShots in Vero Beach.

During the school year last year, her history teacher Cormack Matthew was searching for players to fill out the Shark roster for 2022 in his first year coaching the team and Spence went ahead and said she’d give the game a shot.

Spence has had to learn a lot not only on the course but with applying the rules of golf and the etiquette of the game in competition.

Beginning the round on Tuesday on the ninth hole, Spence had felt great about her previous seven holes with how far she’s come from her first match.

"Every match, I’ve done better and better with my scores," Spence said. I’ve felt more laid back, more comfortable and confident in myself."

She never expected what was going to happen stepping up the tee of the seventh hole just hoping to put a good swing on the ball to get up around the flagstick.

"The round was going well throughout up to that point and went up to that tee box and teed it up and wanted to put the shot in the vicinity of the hole," Spence said. "It just went right in and I’m like, there’s just no way."

Spence ran up and to her delight saw her orange golf ball at the bottom of the cup. At first, she went ahead and grabbed it out of the hole wanting to proceed onward to her final hole but was persuaded to re-create her excitement picking the ball out of the hole for a photo to commemorate her exciting moment.

Finishing her last hole that day proved to be a challenge trying to calm herself down but Spence recorded a 62 that was by far her best 9-hole round she’s ever had.

The excitement for her coach seeing Spence have a moment like that is just one big event in their first season together.

"Out of my six girls for four of them, the first match they had were the first competitive holes they’ve ever played," Matthew said. "It’s been a learning experience for everybody, it’s my first year coaching too and I’m an avid golfer so it was fun trying to tell Ryleigh how rare of a feat this was."

As exciting as the moment was for Spence, now she wants to continue improving her skills and shave off strokes to her score as she has from the start.

Now knowing that the fastest way to do so is something she already has accomplished and the odds of doing that again are high, she is hooked to putting in the work to become a better golfer.

"Match by match, I want to get a better score every time without falling back and I want to get better at the game so I can be even better my senior year," Spence said. "There’s so many factors to the game, it’s a lot to juggle but golf is a lot of fun right now."

A day after Spence’s milestone moment, Passanante was trying to find the rhythm on the lanes knowing he was well capable of also pulling off something special.

Bowling a perfect game is a notch in his belt was something Passanante already had accomplished in a practice session during the year for the Cobras last season.

Prior to the match against Somerset College Prep, Passanante felt great in his warm-up session. As the match began, he carried that over into the start of a special afternoon.

"Ball was coming off my hand pretty good, I found my mark early," Passanante said. "The first shot I had was kind of a lucky strike, it just went my way and all the others the ball came out great, I hit my marks right into the pocket."

Passanante felt that because of the caliber of opponent that his team went up against helped him find his zone and stay in it to help the Cobras try and defeat Somerset College Prep head-to-head.

Earlier in the year, Passanante bowled a 279 game to begin his final high school season showing his form was there. In his previous match against Sebastian River before Wednesday, he did not perform the way he wanted to unable score 200 pins in either of his two games.

As he picked up strike after strike Wednesday, Passanante could feel the tension and knew that he had an audience of people behind him trying to watch him achieve bowling perfection.

"There was probably 40-50 people watching toward the end, I was trying not to look back and get even more nervous because everyone was watching me," Passanante said. "I took a peek eventually because I was curious. It was great to see all 10 pins fall on that final strike. I knew the ball was good but I was really hoping not for a 10 pin. I’ve bowled a 299 as well this summer and it hurts."

Bowling for Passanante along with baseball are his biggest passions but on the lanes, his family has had great success locally.

His older twin sisters Alisa and Emilie were standouts at Lincoln Park Academy graduating in 2018. Emilie was TCPalm’s Bowler of the Year in 2017 and the duo helped the Greyhounds finish as the state runner-up in their senior year.

The pair competed on the women’s bowling team at SCAD Savannah and in their senior year at the school last season helped the school win an NAIA National Championship.

Passanante is hopeful to continue playing baseball at the next level but if the chance comes where he can bowl in college, it’s not a bad backup plan in any stretch.

Now knowing he can withstand the pressure of completing a 300 game in competition, his focus now is on the rest of the year and peaking at the District 12 championship to try and clinch another berth to the state tournament to see what he can do against Florida’s best.

"I’ve just got to stay consistent the rest of the season and when the district tournament comes, that’s a whole new day," Passanante said. "(The 300 game) is in the past and I’m going to need to focus on districts to be at my best that day."

Bryan Cooney is a high school sports reporter at TCPalm, part of the USA TODAY Network. You can reach him at bcooney@gannett.com and also on Twitter at @Bryan_Cooney.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Spence, Passanante defy odds on back-to-back days with ace, 300 game