Shane Waite Goes Full Circle at SCGA Junior

Shanie Waite may be only 22 years old, but she’s already achieved something of a full circle moment. Having started in golf at the age of six, three years after the tragic passing of her infant sister, Waite fast found the fairways of Maggie Hathaway GC as a safe space to assuage her grief. Two years later, she joined SCGA Junior.

“I immediately fell in love with the game, the instruction, my peers and just being on the course,” Waite recalls. “It started as a way to get me away from the grieving, but then I really got serious about golf. And I think the independent part of golf really helped me get comfortable with myself.”

Introduced to the game by the Southern Area Youth Program Inc., she excelled both on and off the course and would eventually become an SCGA Junior Golf Foundation Scholar.

“Kevin Gigax (SCGA Junior Golf Foundation Executive Director) and others had started telling me about the scholarship,” she recalls, “and the more I thought about the opportunity, I began thinking, ‘What can I do not only to make my mark, but also to give back to my community and be that person who other people look up to?’”

The scholarship paved the path to playing college golf at Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, Texas), where she’d eventually elevate to team captain. Waite would return to SoCal during summers and winter holidays to coach several hundred kids with SCGA Junior.

“Working with the kids was so rewarding, seeing how they looked up to me,” she says. “I just loved seeing the smiles on their faces when they got on the course for the first time. I could see how appreciative they were, and it all just reminded me why I started playing in the first place.”

Through her own time in the game, Waite has cultivated her own coaching methods.

“It’s important to look at the personality of every student; not everybody is going to be the same, have the same swing,” she explains. “What I enjoy about the process is silently evaluating my players and figuring out what fits each of them best as individuals.”

Waite’s coaching has mixed well with an academic career that has continued to blossom. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Prairie View with a B.S. in Criminal Justice, this past August she earned her Master of Science Degree in Juvenile Justice; today, she’s on scholarship at UC-Davis, en route to pursuing a second master’s degree in business management.

The bookwork proves a potent pairing with her job as Southwest L.A. Program Coordinator & Golf Instructor for the SCGA Junior Golf Foundation, where Waite grew up, honing skills at both Maggie Hathaway GC and Alondra Park GC.

Going back and giving back, Waite works toward an impact both cultural and communal, with an aim of enhancing needed diversity in the game.

“In my role today — having experienced and recognized the importance of Black golfers in the college world — that’s helping me with the right now,” she concludes. “So many of the kids I work with, they don’t know anything about golf, or they think golf is a white sport. Now, after my experiences, I can go into these communities, I can talk to these parents about these opportunities, these scholarships, HBCUs and the benefits that truly can come with the SCGA Junior programming and Foundation scholarship.”

Spending as much time talking about life path as she does swing path, Waite’s teachings evidence how the game’s fairways can lead to so much beyond the course.

“That’s why I have such appreciation for SCGA Junior putting me back where I first started,” she says. “I can show these kids who look like me, ‘Look at what this did for me — this could be you.’” ▪

To watch Shani Waite’s story, scan the code.