KOKOMO

Brayton Hattabaugh’s dream of playing collegiate golf became a reality last week.

The recent Brownstown Central High School graduate will continue his academic and athletic career at Indiana University Kokomo.

Hattabaugh, who signed to Kokomo last week, served as the Braves’ No. 1 golfer the past two seasons.

He is a two-time All-Jackson County team golfer, and was also named to the All-Mid-Southern Conference first team the past two seasons.

Hattabaugh took home the Braves’ most improved award his junior season before getting most valuable player this past spring.

In his senior season, Hattabaugh averaged 42 strokes on nine holes and 83.6 for 18-hole tournaments.

“Two intangible qualities that come to mind when I think about Brayton Hattabaugh are attitude and passion,” Brownstown coach Brandon Allman said. “With him, they almost come hand-in-hand. Brayton loves the sport of golf. He puts in countless hours at the course, not only to improve, but also because he just has the passion for the game and loves being on the course.

He has improved immensely over his four years as a member of the BCHS golf team mainly because of his attitude. There have been many days he did not perform up to his expectations, but no matter what he had a positive outlook. That also made a difference in his leadership role on the team this year. His teammates fed off of him, which made us a closer and much better team over the course of the season.

Brayton is the ideal student-athlete; he is self-dependent. I never had to worry about his academics or whether he was working on his game. If all my student-athletes were like Brayton Hattabaugh, my job would be really easy.”

Kokomo is an NAIA school that competes in the River States Conference.

The Cougars finished in fifth place of 12 teams at the RSC Championship last season.

Dan Giesceke is entering his third season of coaching the Cougars.