Rural Watseka, Ill., provides the wide, open vastness that allows children – and their fort-building, hide-and-go-seek-playing imaginations – to run wild. The one thing it doesn't offer is a golf course. 

 

Not that it mattered much to the Imburgia family: they were used to taking the 30-minute-each-way trek to the closest golf course three-plus times a week. But for some reason – that same ironic, odd reason that leads people into the random grocery aisle where they meet their future wife or the college professor of a required general education course that turns a planned-to-be-accountant into a paleontologist – Dr. Dom and Marsha Imburgia decided to uproot their family and move. 

 

Dr. Dom Imburgia wanted to establish his own medical practice and Watseka wasn't the business savvy location he needed. After many shared discussions with his five children – Diane, Anthony, Matt, Mike and Katie – and his wife regarding where they would like to live, “on a golf course!” became the loudest, most united cry. 

 

Effingham, Ill., proved the most appropriate place for each of the Imburgia requirements and, as a result, the children were exposed daily to the game that would define their collegiate experiences, unite their family, and remain a source of friendly bragging for years to come.

 

That move started a tidal wave of change that would hit the Eastern Illinois University golf program and flow through Katie being named this month's Result of the LAIR Fund student-athlete. But there's so much more to her story than that…

 

The first forays onto the Imburgia family's new backyard/Hole 13 of the Effingham Country Club golf course proved a bit shaky. But the kids tirelessly drove, chipped, and putted their way onto the St. Anthony High School team, to IHSA Class-A state championships and face-to-face with the elusive question: what next?

 

Diane, the eldest of the Imburgia Five, chose to attend Millikin University, joined the golf team and is now a dentist in Indianapolis. 

 

Anthony chose to attend and play golf at Mercer College in Georgia, quickly changed paths, enrolled at and golfed for Illinois State University. Later he decided against graduating as a Redbird, transferred to EIU and reignited his college golf career as a Panther, culminating with a Kauai Collegiate win in Hawaii his senior year. He is now completing his studies at the IUPUI School of Dentistry and plans to become an orthodontist. 

 

Twins Matt & Mike followed in their older brother's footsteps, enrolled at Illinois State University and transferred to EIU, bringing the number of Imburgias on the golf team to three. Their commencement in 2009 led them each into law school: Matt at IUPUI and Mike at the University of Dayton. 

 

At that point, in 2006-07, over 35 percent of the men's EIU golf team was made up of children from the same family; EIU Golf Coach Mike Moncel couldn't be happier. “The Imburgias are a great family and, having had the opportunity to coach them when they were little kids, I knew the talent they possessed.”

 

And then there was the question of what path the youngest Imburgia, Katie, would take. An avid golfer in her own right, the self-described perfectionist politico enrolled in pharmaceutical school at Butler University, thus hanging up her clubs. But the same nagging sensation to play she felt so many times staring past her backyard onto the 13th hole on the Effingham Country Club course lured her back to the game and resulted in a transfer to EIU. 

 

“Some programs may have viewed it as a negative, giving up so many spots to kids from one family," coach Moncel shared. "Really, it was a no brainer for me! I knew the character each of the kids had and the emphasis they put on their education. Their becoming Panther golfers put our team on the right track academically and attracted the right type of student-athletes we want to come to EIU".

 

Katie immediately made an impact upon the program, highlighted by a win over a field of 60-plus at the 2008 University of Dayton Fall Invitational. “Over the years that I have been a Panther, our team has gotten much closer and, also, much more competitive. When Carrie Riordan won the Ohio Valley Conference title in 2009, it was definitely one of the greatest memories I have of playing golf for EIU. It was a catalyst to elevate each of our games.

 

“The relationship Coach Moncel and I had wasn't the typical coach-athlete relationship. We both shared a passion for politics and would spend countless trips to golf tournaments discussing issues and frustrations in the front seats while my teammates would be listening to their iPods in the back. To this day, his wife jokes that we should run for office together.”

 

“Katie was a great cohort in shaping my opinions,” Moncel reflects, “so it's not a surprise she's chosen the career she has.” 

 

Accepted into the nationally-ranked Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Katie will enroll in July of 2010 on a full scholarship. Her goal is to specialize in sports law and obtain a position within the NCAA. 

 

“The work ethic I have developed while at Eastern playing golf will be key during those countless hours of studying at Indiana. I also learned to relax a bit; I am the biggest perfectionist and with an attitude like that, you can really curse a round of golf if things start to go badly. Coach Moncel taught me to stop thinking and just hit the ball. My calming mantra became: 'Please keep me in this; keep me calm.' If I didn't learn how to manage that part of myself, I don't think I could ever get through law school.”

 

Coach Moncel shares: “Katie has what I call a 'fly in the window' condition: she has done the same thing over and over trying to make it work her way instead of taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. That was the old Katie. Now, she's learned that sometimes there is an easier way out if you just take a deep breath and look for it. With golf being a game not of how good your good shots are but, rather, how good your bad shots are, it has been exciting to see Katie let go of the imperfections and allow her game, and herself, to develop."

 

When you consider what has grown from those humble Watseka roots within Katie and the entire Imburgia family, you begin to wonder… Each has gone to enter a field in medicine or law. Each has excelled at the sport they became so passionate about. Each has made an impact by serving their university's community while enrolled. 

 

Katie has culminated the Imburgia era at Eastern Illinois University. Her 4.0 cumulative GPA, community service through the Phi Alpha Eta honors fraternity, membership in the Kappa Delta sorority, volunteerism with the Mattoon Public Action to Deliver Shelter and leadership on the golf team have made her the epitome of an Eastern Illinois University Result of the LAIR Fund recipient.

 

Thank goodness for the lessons golf provides.