The peaceful green seems hardly to be the location of a fierce battleground. Yet for James Wicke, the beautiful sun-dappled turf isn’t just a golf course but also the setting for a game that involves a clash of wills.

As he prepares to tee off, the “big time nervous” feeling of being the first to tee off fades away – replaced by intense concentration and cool, collected confidence. Neither the screeching of shoes across polished floorboard in a gym nor the loud splashes during a water polo match can match the sharp thwack of a single swing and the deafening period of silence that follows afterwards.

THWACK!

The white sphere sails into the air, temporarily disappearing from the normal eye, but a pair of blue eyes track the ball closely from under the rim of a white baseball cap with eagle-like vision. When the ball finally lands, a smile appears as he plans his next shot.

Fitting the image of a professional golfer, the 6'1" senior who plans to pursue a career in golf management seems to be someone who started hitting plastic golf balls as a child.

Even though he did have a plastic golf set and a beginning set of golf clubs, Wicke’s childhood experience in golf was mainly for leisure. Originally, when Wicke started high school, golfing wasn’t something he intended to pick up.

“Baseball was always my sport,” Wicke said. “My main focus was to play baseball so that was my big thing when I came to school. But then I started playing golf and fell in love with it and then baseball just kind of died away.”

Currently in his third year of varsity golf, Wicke also plays forward in basketball and goalie in water polo. There are many demands in playing three such diverse sports, such as spending less time with family and late nights. But he sees it as an advantage.

“They kind of help each other out,” Wicke said. “You also learn an amount of physical strength in basketball that carries over to golf.”

The mental aspect of golf has helped Wicke improve his concentration in other sports but it is the evasive challenge he likes the most.

“You can never be really good,” Wicke said with a smile. “There’s always something that you’re doing wrong, but then there’s this glimpse of hope that you’re going to do something right and that just keeps you coming back for more and more.”

Wicke’s determination along with his personal motto of “Never give up, always work hard, you can always do better” has greatly helped him in his dream to become a professional. Wicke has three times scored 39 in matches this year, including in Monday’s win against Hilmar.

“James has come a long way,” said Dan Offield, varsity coach. “He’s hitting the driver long. His scores were around 50 as a sophomore and as he is now, every time he tees it up he has a chance to break 40 and a possibility to go lower than that.”

Fellow teammate senior Victor Gomez, who has been on the team four years, says Wicke has a chance to go pretty far because he is a dedicated athlete.

“He’s a good model to follow,” Gomez said. “If you’re doing something wrong he tries to help you fix it.”

With self-motivation, inspiration from both parents and his two professional golf role models, Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan, Wicke is set. Being only one from an extremely athletic family to pursue a career athletics, Wicke hopes to shoot far in his career in golf management and hopes to eventually open his own course.

“I’m hoping that down the road that James will get me a 10 percent cut and I’ll be his temporary caddie in the summertime,” Offield said with a smile. “He’s got a chance to go far in golf if he wants to. The only one who can stop James is James.”