Alice James earns Valentine Award for Perkins coaching tenure

Alice James has been around golf for her entire life, from playing in amateur leagues to coaching a state-champion golf team. She spent her youth and early adult years playing at the Plumbrook Country Club in Sandusky. From the age of 16, she began winning Plumbrook golf titles and collected 27 in her time there. While James was a great golfer in her time, it's her long career as the coach of the Perkins girls golf team that earned her the prestigious George Valentine Award. "It's the most prestigious award that the OHSGCA gives," James said. "... I am so honored to receive this award. I'm happy they recognize my love for golf and kids." The award, named after a former association president, was given to James on May 2, and wasn't her first time receiving honors from the association. Back in 2014, she was inducted into the Ohio High School Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame, after spending nine years asan executive on the OHSGCA board. "Winning the award was kind of shocking," James said. "It was the first award I had earned for just being me. Receiving it was one of the biggest honors I've ever received." Before James got her start coaching, girls golf had yet to be established past amateur golf leagues and club teams in the area. "There was really no high school girls team back then," James said. James has worked for 31 years as a school counselor at Meadowlawn Intermediate School in the Perkins Local School District, giving her a place to establish girls golf. Her lifelong passion for the game, which has kept her involved in golf to this day, inspired her to organize a girls team for the high school in 2001. "It was a no brainer for me," James said. "I love kids and I love golf." The Pirates' girls golf team began at the club level and rose to JV and then to varsity. The rise of the program culminated in a state championship. In her time with the Perkins Pirates, James compiled a 173-61 record over 19 years of coaching, and in 2012, her Pirates put on an impressive showing at the Division II state championships. They won state as a team, and Perkins golfer Maddy Mullins took the individual state title, as well. "It's been fun to develop the program, and watch the kids grow, become state champions," James said. "Coaching has been wonderful, fabulous. I can't imagine my life without it."