About the Program
The JPII Golf Program is led by Head Coach Bruce Smith, who also serves as the Director of Instruction for the Blackbelt Golf Academy at Indian Creek.  The JPII Golf Program competes at the TAPPS 6A Level in District 2, along with 5 other teams.  Currently in the 2021-2022 school year there are 12 student athletes on the golf team.  We participate in golf competitions in both the Fall and the Spring.  Usually we play in 4 events in the fall and another 4 to 5 events in the spring and then the post-season of Districts, Regionals and State.  Golf at JPII is currently an 8th period "B" Day class.  This means we practice every other day.  In the fall of 2020, golf will be going to an after school program.  Practices will still be on "B" days, but this gives us some flexibility to change the schedule to accommodate for poor weather.  Golf practice will take place year round in both the Fall and the Spring semesters.  Our home base has usually been Indian Creek in Carrollton.  Sometimes we also use Sherrill Park in Richardson and also Watters Creek in Allen.  On poor weather days, we exclusively practice at Top Golf in Allen.  


Coaching Philosophy
I have spent the majority of my adult life coaching kids in both golf and in life skills.  Just about all of my players at JPII have their own "swing coaches" away from our practices.  My experience in developing high school players to collegiate players has shown me the key to winning championships lies in the short game.  Eliminating mistakes with the wedge and putter will be our key to success.  More importantly, I try to teach my players how to survive in the world beyond high school.  Golf is a very strict game.  It has certain rules that require constant, year-round practice.  Some of which I preach to my players a lot.  "When you are on time, you are late.  When you are early, you are on time" and "Your attention should be in the details".  I want my kids to leave JPII and be ready for life.  Golf will take care of itself for those that want it bad enough.  I want them ready to take care of themselves when they leave the "nest" of being parented.  They need to understand the value of asking for help and surrounding yourself with good people that believe in you and drive you towards success.  The majority of my kids will not go on to play collegiate golf, but that does not mean they can't enjoy golf for the rest of their lives.  We do our best to practice things that will lead to success, both on and off the course.  As a 4th Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, I can tell them nothing will hit as hard as life.  But it's not about how hard you can hit back, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.  That's where the success starts.  There is no one way to do this, each person must have the determination to keep moving forward.  When we all start thinking this way, we will win a State Title.  


Program Goals
Our ultimate goal for our program is to win the very first State Title for the JPII Golf Program. This is a process that will take some time to build. We have a strong core of sophomores on the Ladies Team and the Boys Team is up and coming. I look for this to happen in the next couple of years and it will be historic for our program as it will be our first. My main goal aside from the golf is that all of our kids move on to make an impact in our community, not only in golf, but in life as well, and to carry on in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II. This will build a pedigree for future student-athletes at JPII. The entire Athletic Program at JPII is beginning to be "State-Wide" recognized and we want the golf program to be part of that also.


Program History
I have recently competed my fourth year as the JPII Head Golf Coach.  Here are some of our accomplishments under my tenure to date.

2021 Girls State Third Place
2021 1st Team All-State Golfer: Madie Bailey
2021 1st Team All-State Golfer: Chase Cutler
2021 2nd Team All-State Golfer: Kai Leider
2021 1st Team All-State Golfer: Sydney Lewis
2021 2nd Team All-State Golfer: Sidney Gainor

2021 Girls Regional Runner-Up
2021 Boys Regional Runner-Up


2019 Girls State Team Runner-Up
2019 All-State Golfer:  Olivia Kochan

2019 Boys and Girls District Team Champions
2019 Girls Regional Team Champions

2019 Team Captain Chelsea Chow, playing collegiate golf at Southern Arkansas


Social Media
Follow @jp2golf on Twitter and see what we're up to!


Additional Resources
You can contact Head Coach Bruce Smith with any questions at his cell number at 214-727-8857.  He can also be reached by email at blackbeltgolfacademy@gmail.com.