CHS' Maggio ready to geaux forward

In front of a crowd of about 200 at Wampus Cat Arena, Conway's Mary Michael Maggio signed Wednesday to play golf for LSU.

Joined at the signing table by a large crowd of family clad in Tiger purple and gold, Maggio talked about the past that has paved the way for her future.

"I feel a great sense of relief," she said, adding she never once wavered from her April 21 commitment. "I was nervous all day. I watched Na'Dra (Robertson, her CHS classmate who will play basketball for Alabama A&M) sign this morning, and it hit me that I'm about to chase the dream in purple and gold.

"I am so excited. I'm wishing I was going to Baton Rouge tomorrow. I'm bayou-bound. Geaux Tigers!"

CHS golf and girls basketball coach Janet Taylor called Maggio "the most decorated female athlete in Conway High history." Taylor told the crowd she would enumerate a few of Maggio's accomplishments then unrolled a document that looked to be about 50 typewritten pages.

A partial list of those accomplishments includes:

three championships, two runners-up, 21 top 10 and three top 15 finishes among 26 American Junior Golf Association tournaments;

2007 Rolex All-American second-team honors;

2008 Rolex All-American honorable mention honors;

four-time qualifier for and two-time round-of-16 finisher in the United States Girls' Junior Championship;

four-year all-conference finisher for the Lady Cats;

four-year conference medalist;

four-year all-state honoree;

Class 7A state champion, 2007;

state runner-up, 2005, '06, '08;

Arkansas Overall champion, 2006, '07;

Overall runner-up, 2005, '08.

"Now she'll go off to win national championships and tournaments for LSU," Taylor said.

Maggio had her choice of colleges. Her father, Mike Maggio, said she'd received scholarship offers from every school in the Pac 10, Big 12 and Southeastern conferences as well as Notre Dame, Duke, Stanford,

North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, Miami and Wake Forest.

Surrounding her at the signing table were her parents, Mike and Emily Maggio; her siblings, Matt, Joe, Nick and Anne Henry; both sets of grandparents; godparents and an aunt, among others. In the stands to watch were Scott May, her first golf teacher; Scott Shelby, pro at Conway Country Club, "who picked me up when I was down and brought me down when I was way too up;" Butch Phillips, who repaired a number of clubs for her over the years; high school friends; golf teammates and former Wampus Cats, including Jeff Campbell, Conway's last Division I signee, now at the University of Central Arkansas.

She thanked Jesus, her parents, siblings, Taylor and Dan Snider, one of the premier golf teachers in Arkansas, for helping her take her game to a new level. She received a standing ovation after the signing.

Taylor said it was impossible to sum up what Maggio had meant to CHS in a few words.

"High school golf is a chance to showcase how far you've come, a testament to what you've done in the summer, a chance to give back to the school, and she's done that," Taylor said. "She's made the community, the school and the state proud. If she wants a career in pro golf, she has all the qualities to make it as far as she wants to go. I've never seen her want something she's not gone out and gotten.

"She is so goal-oriented, and that comes from such great parents. She's a mini-clone of both of them. She got all their great qualities and molded it into a recipe for greatness.

"She has it whatever 'it' is. She has an unbelievable work ethic, great athletic ability. If she can't do something, she sticks with it until she can. She's smart, savvy whatever it is, all pressed into one.

"To be a great competitor on this level, you've got to have that confidence and fearlessness. I wish I could define what 'it' is. I'd package it and give it to every athlete I have."