The William Jewell College golf team recently returned from a weekend outside of the country — sort of. Both the men and women traveled to Puerto Rico to participate in the UIS Island Getaway. The women finished in fourth place out of seven teams. The men finished fifth out eight teams. The men’s team was led by Nick Sobba, first-year, in the Island Getaway. He finished 13th overall.
Sobba originally hails from Parkville, MO, a northern Kansas City suburb, where he attended Park Hill South High School. In high school, Sobba won multiple awards, including the KC Star Athlete of the week and First-Team All-Metro, in addition to winning numerous tournament championships. He chose Jewell over other institutions of higher learning because of the Jewell community, and overall his transition to college life has been easy.
“I came in and the senior golfers took me under their wing the first week [at Jewell]. Since then, it has been smooth sailing. I have had a great time here already. Playing golf everyday helps, too.”
One of those seniors, Derek Peterson, had nothing but positive words to say about Nick.
Peterson mentioned that Sobba was “A heck-of-a-player, and his performance has led the team most of the fall.”
Sobba has thoroughly enjoyed William Jewell in his first three months as a collegiate athlete. He loves the athlete-heavy student body, and the camaraderie that it brings.
“My favorite thing about Jewell has to be the people and that most of them play sports. I walk around every day passing people and they ask ‘how was your trip’ or ‘good luck.’ It’s a pretty cool feeling when you know a lot of people, and you can say good luck to them all the time or they can wish you luck.”
The camaraderie between athletes isn’t the only aspect of Jewell that Sobba has enjoyed. He thoroughly loves playing golf. He also really loves the community that drew him to the college. He’s looking forward to being at Jewell for his final three and a half years.
“I am looking forward to traveling to all these places on the golf side of things. On the school side of things, I would say meeting a bunch of new people and making life time friends here. Everyone at Jewell is so close, so it makes it even easier to happen.”
The golf team has already traveled a significant amount since the start of the school year. Tournaments in Chicago and St. Louis were fun, but Sobba really enjoyed their recent trip to Puerto Rico.
“Puerto Rico has been our best trip so far. When the whole team gets on a plane together its fun. Over the four days we were there, it only consisted of about 12 hours of golf. With that being said, we had a lot of time to hang out on the beach, go up into the mountains and stuff like that.”
The trip, however, would not have been the same with a different team. Sobba fits in perfectly with the golf team.
“Jewell golf is very laid back. I hang out with people from the team almost every day. They are some of my best friends. You can’t find a better guy than [men’s] Coach [Bob] Cole to play for.”
In an interview with Paul Worstell, Jewell athletics’ Sports Information Director, Coach Cole said:
“Nick is very talented, and has an opportunity to rank well in the region. Some tweaks to the short game should strengthen his game.”
Including the 13th place finish in Puerto Rico, Sobba has another top 13 finish and a top ten finish this year. He is confident going into the spring season, and he expects to make a run at conference. With a strong core of upperclassmen, and the stellar play by Sobba, that expectation is becoming quite realistic.