BILLINGS — Giving up is never an option for Lockwood's Izzabella Weber.
That's why, when it became clear that volleyball and basketball weren't viable athletic options due to problems with both of her Achilles tendons, Weber would not be deterred.
Instead, Weber found solace on the golf course. And it turned out to be the best decision she could have made.
Still, she had her doubts in the beginning.
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"Never in a million years would I have thought that I would golf, and I also would not have expected to stick with it," Weber told MTN Sports. "I golfed for the first time the day before tryouts, and it was awful. It was terrible. I came home to my mom and I was like, 'Just let me quit, it's not going to work.'
"She didn't let me quit. Something just stuck with me. I was like, 'You know what? Maybe this won't be too bad.'"
Not at all. Weber went to the Class A state golf tournament as a sophomore with her Lockwood team, then qualified as an individual in both her junior and senior seasons.
Two weeks ago in Sidney she earned a medal and all-state recognition by placing 14th in the girls standings with a two-round total of 185. Her final round score was 89, seven strokes better than her score in Round 1.
Weber had come a long way from those first swings she took as a freshman newcomer, and even further from the separate surgical procedures she underwent — gastrocnemius recession operations — in an attempt to cure the Achilles tightness that had plagued her in basketball and volleyball junior high.
After those surgeries, Weber still encountered pain caused by the attendant scar tissue, and the recovery time was longer than expected. That, in turn, complicated her planned return to playing basketball and volleyball, and the golf course beckoned.
"She gave golf a try," said Weber's father, J.D. "I remember the first time we came out here. I didn't know anything about golf, but we tried it together. And that first year was rough.
"But she's worked out here at Pryor (Creek) the last two summers developing her game, working hard. She's always out here at the range. You don't ever have to worry about where she's at if she's not home. She's usually at the range or on the course."
Weber overcame her initial doubts and stuck with her newfound sport. It was a life lesson she doesn't take for granted.
"The unknown definitely isn't as scary as you think it would be," she said. "I'm not the type of person to go off track of what I have planned, and (playing golf) was completely out of the ordinary. But it turned out in the best possible way it could have."
Weber added: "I've definitely looked back, and I think the part that's stuck out to me the most was the relationships I've made and the friends that I never would have even crossed paths with, and it just means the world to me."
