Write it down: Isabella’s girls golf team will win the county tournament championship this season.

The bold prediction isn’t because the IHS players are so good, it’s because they’re the only girls golf team in the county.

But the players and the school still deserve credit for starting something that coach Jay LeCroy will grow until every county school fields a team.

“We hope by this time next year that more county schools have teams,” LeCroy said.

That would certainly make for easier scheduling. As it is, the squad is only competing against Bibb County and West Blocton, two teams that are relatively close and are comparable to Isabella in terms of ability.

“As we get better, we hope to be able to travel up into Shelby County and Birmingham and play,” LeCroy said.

For now, the girls are content going out on the course and seeing how much they’ve improved when the boys team has matches scheduled.

The team includes Savanah Rasberry, Kinslee Mims, Savannah Kissel and Mary-Devin Meredith. Only Meredith, a freshman, had played competitively before the start of this season. She was on Bibb County’s team last year.

Meredith said her father got her involved in the sport.

“I like just going out there and seeing what I can do and meeting new people,” she said.

Mims, like her three other teammates, was new to the sport.

“They all looked like they were having fun, so I decided I would give it a try,” she said. “I love it. It’s just fun because it’s kind of stress-free, relaxing.”

The team practices at a driving range LeCroy set up on property he owns, about one mile from the school.

LeCroy helped start the boys team four years ago. He said it became obvious that there was enough interest to start a girls team.

“It just got to the point last year where I had about nine girls that said they would play if we had a girls team,” he said. “So we went ahead and put together what we consider the first girls team in the county.”

The county tournament will be played April 24 at Montevallo Golf Course.