Golfer’s drive gets St. Edward program back on the links
St. Edward senior golfer Kendall Pemberton has a strong pitch game.
So strong she successfully pitched her idea to reinstate a Green Wave girls golf team that had gone dormant in 2023.
Better still, despite lacking any playing experience before last fall, Pemberton placed third in the 2024 Chicagoland Christian Conference as a junior, and on Monday at Kankakee Elks Country Club the natural athlete tied Wheaton Academy’s Eva Marquez for overall 2025 league medalist honors.
“I am passionate about golf,” Pemberton said. “My family are also golfers, so they inspired me along the way to where I am today.”
A three-sport athlete headed to play softball at Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, her father, Chris Pemberton, is the boys golf coach at Bartlett.
Her older brother, Drew, studies golf enterprise management at Wisconsin-Stout. At St. Edward he was on Green Wave golf and bowling teams both coached by Paul Netzel.
Kendall Pemberton, who wanted to try golf after two prep volleyball seasons, remembered that. She reached Netzel, who coached St. Edward girls golf in 2022 before the program dwindled to zero golfers, if he could come back.
“I said, if you can get four other girls — that’s enough for a team — I’ll coach you. She proceeded to round up some girls,” Netzel said.
Pemberton recruited six other players for that 2024 team, including volleyball teammates Hailey Buckner and Sofia Gonzalez.
“Once I convinced him to do it he was very supportive and hopped on board. We started practicing the very next week, and he’s guided us along the way,” she said.
This year’s squad of seniors Pemberton, Gianna Deutsch and Molly Rynne, and juniors Buckner, Gonzalez and Mackenzie Fitzpatrick tied for fourth in the CCC on Monday.
This group won three matches this season, with Pemberton having a good shot at a repeat team MVP award after being the medalist in three of four conference matches entering Monday’s tournament, Netzel said.
“When I first started I didn’t really know what to expect,” Pemberton said, “so going into it I was really happy to find supportive friends, and it’s been a really positive two seasons overall.”
Turning 81 on Oct. 19, Netzel said it’s “up in the air” whether he returns next year. He’s already turned over the Oswego High School softball program to an assistant after three excellent seasons, including winning the Class 4A title last spring.
“I’ve been talking to a couple people about taking my place,” Netzel said of St. Edward girls golf. “They haven’t committed to anything yet. I stay fairly close to the athletic director (P.J. White), and we’re going to figure out how to make that happen.”
Hint: Find the next Kendall Pemberton.
“We all really love the sport and we’re always so excited to go to matches and practices,” she said, “and especially the team bonding itself.”
Twice as nice
Retired Glenbrook South boys track and field coach Kurt Hasenstein informed us that John Nalley, a Lisle High School graduate who went on to coach Palatine boys track for three decades, was inducted into the Lisle and Palatine halls of fame on the same day.
Former Daily Herald sports writer Marty Maciaszek reported that Nalley was inducted into both on Sept. 19. Nalley could only attend one ceremony, that being Palatine’s, since that school informed him of his selection before Lisle did.
A 1982 Lisle graduate, John Nalley played quarterback on the Lions football team coached by his legendary father, Carlin Nalley.
John Nalley was a runner as well, bound for Northwestern University’s cross country team after three all-state track finishes in the 800- and 1600-meter runs. He told the Daily Herald that only once, in his senior year, did his father let him run in a Saturday cross country meet following a Friday night football game.
As Palatine’s head track coach 31 seasons from 1992-2022 Nalley produced 150 state qualifiers, representing all 18 events. His Pirates earned 29 all-state medals and won six individual titles, two by 800-meter superstar Mat Smoody in 2007-08.
Somehow not in the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Nalley continues to assist in those sports at Glenbrook South, which he joined as a volunteer for Hasenstein in 2022, 35 years after they met at a track meet at North Central College.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com