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King captured CPC championship Monday; preparing for regional and state tournaments

By Janie Peterson
For the Clemmons Courier

The King family has been leaving an impression on the greens in both the fall and spring.
West Forsyth’s top women’s golf player, senior Mary-Paige King, daughter of boy’s golf coach and former boy’s basketball coach Kevin King, has been tearing it up this season.
Mary-Paige was crowned as the queen of the Central Piedmont 4-A Conference on Monday after firing a 67 to win the season-long race for conference champion by seven shots, besting runner-up Anna Howerton of Reagan.
In six of the nine conference matches this season, King has been the low individual scorer, solo or tied.
King is committed to play golf at Catawba College next year and is grateful that her dad and grandfather, Ron, got her into the sport at a young age.
“They bought me my first set of clubs when I was 10 and I just started going to little golf camps and getting into it. I began playing some tournaments and then entered into bigger tournaments,” King said.
Their mutual love of the game has had the added benefit of strengthening an already-tight personal bond between Mary-Paige and her dad.
“We get to spend a bunch of time together. There’s nothing that I have enjoyed more than getting to watch her play,” Kevin King said.
Today, their skill level seems to be on-par with one another.
“They taught me everything, but as I started getting better, they just encouraged me. They can’t really help me as much now just because I’m on the same level or better than them,” Mary-Paige said.
Kevin King admits that playing together can get intense at times.
“We have a really good time. Both of us are super competitive. Neither one of us likes to lose to the other one. Sometimes we play team events and I don’t think she’s always rooting for me when we’re on the same team just because she wants to beat me,” he said.
Mary-Paige serves an important role on the team, not only as an elite player, but also as a teammate. She has been the best player since she’s been at West but is especially stepping into a leadership position as a senior, offering advice and encouragement.
“I would say that I’ve kind of been a captain in a way just helping people,” Mary-Paige said.
In previous years, Reagan has been the Titans’ biggest rival, but they have already beaten the Raiders in five of the conference matches this season. Other key contributors this season have included junior Paige Sidney and sophomore Sadie Mecham.
“I don’t think West has had three players that are this good that have been on the same team together, so the way that we’re all so close in age and around the same skill level just makes us a lot better than we have been in the past,” Mary-Paige said.
King expects Pinecrest and some of the bigger Charlotte and Raleigh schools to be tougher competitors that the team may face in the regional and state tournaments. Even if the team does not advance past the conference meet, King will still have a chance to advance individually.
“Last year we broke a lot of records for the school just because we haven’t ever had a team this good. I think we can do better this year than we did last year,” Mary-Paige said.
Kevin King said: “Her mom and I are realizing as we go along that everything that we do now is ‘the last time we’ll see her play at this golf course,’ ‘this is the last time we will see her play in the conference tournament,’ so it’s a little bittersweet when you get to the end of high school.”