First Tee national celebrates 25 years of teaching life skills through golf

When First Tee-Phoenix alum Kaitlynn Criswell was 10, she saw a group of kids playing parachute at the Longbow Golf Club in Mesa. Although she didn’t know what the organization was, she knew she wanted to join.

“At the time when I was there, they were doing parachute,” Criswell said. “... I was like, ‘Dad, that looks fun.’ I literally told him, I was like, ‘I want to get involved in this organization.’ Didn't know what it was at the time.”

What Criswell thought was just a youth event at Longbow turned out to be First Tee-Phoenix — an organization dedicated to teaching kids in the community life skills through golf.

While improving her golf game throughout her childhood, Criswell said she also learned crucial life skills within the First Tee-Phoenix program.

“At the end of each level, we always had a talk about core values and what you would do in the course with like, respect, perseverance, and do off the course with respect, perseverance, integrity, like all of that,” Criswell said. “They would ask us to give us an example of how you can use respect in a classroom or in a home setting.”

First Tee-Phoenix is just one of around 150 branches throughout the world. The Phoenix branch is slated to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2023. Over the past 19 years, First Tee-Phoenix executive director Erin McDonough estimated over 150,000 kids have come through the First-Tee Phoenix community and school programs.

As First Tee national turns 25 this year, McDonough said teaching life skills is an integral part of the organization. First Tee has nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, judgment, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, and courtesy.

“The founders really saw that, and if anybody's played golf, you have to have perseverance and sportsmanship and honesty and all those core pieces,” McDonough said. “I think they saw that was something good that they wanted to hand down to youth and it just grew from there.”

First Tee national used child development specialists to develop a specific curriculum for youth golfers moving through the ranks, McDonough said. The organization’s core programming begins at 7 years old, but kids can join at any age.

All youth golfers starting in the organization begin at the PLAYer rank to learn about First Tee’s code of conduct and the basics of golf. From there, golfers move to Par, Birdie, Eagle and Ace. Each rank has specific life skills to learn, including resilience, conflict resolution, self-management and giving back to the community.

Shane Ishmael joined First-Tee Phoenix in 2016 after a classmate introduced him to the program, his mother, Petrina, said. Now, at 17 years old, Shane has worked through the First Tee’s life skills to become an Eagle.

“It’s helped him become a lot more comfortable with speaking with adults and also with, like, a crowd,” Petrina said. “He's done a couple of tournaments, so he's kind of learned how to conduct himself, and gained some really valuable skills.”

Shane participated in the 100-hole Putt-a-Thon on Saturday morning as part of the First Tee's summer programming. First Tee-Phoenix will host two camps a week over the summer for kids. The organization will also offer once-a-week prep for two end-of-summer tournaments: the Rising Star and Kloenne Cup.

To prepare for summer and year-round programming, First-Tee Phoenix relies on volunteers, parents, and paid coaches to help lead different youth events.

“We've got some incredible coaches that are dedicated to teaching those nine life skills and also helping the kids become good golfers,” Pete Kuehner, First Tee-Phoenix board of directors' treasurer, said. “...We've had some very wonderful players, but the biggest part’s about firstly, learning life's lessons at a young age so you can take them into your adulthood.”

After graduating high school, Criswell left the First Tee-Phoenix program to attend college and play golf at Minot State University in North Dakota. But Criswell said she couldn’t stay away from her "second family.”

So, she became a coach for First Tee-Phoenix after she graduated college and moved back to the valley.

“When I grew up, this was my second family,” Criswell said. “Like, you would have all the people that you know, you know every single one of the coaches, every single one of the students, and it would be like a giant, big second family for you. So, I mean, that's what truly brought me back, the family aspect of it.”

Although Criswell has ample golf experience, First Tee-Phoenix doesn’t require its coaches to be accomplished golfers — it just wants people that have an affection for helping kids develop life skills.

“[The coaches are] somebody that's living out the values that make golf special,” McDonough said. “It's that perseverance, that sportsmanship, that honesty and integrity, just character in general. So, we try to make sure that we're hiring folks that bring that forward and teach the kids by example. They have to have a passion for youth sports. They have to have a passion for improving kids’ lives and having a passion for golf is a bonus.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: First Tee celebrates 25 years of teaching life skills through golf