Switch to academy made a difference for Florkowski

By Sean Rooney on November 13, 2018.

Editor’s note: This week we’ve lined up a series of stories looking back at athletes who came through Medicine Hat’s Notre Dame Academy, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Today is a feature on golfer Jesse Florkowski. For more names and photos see what Notre Dame’s been posting on Twitter using the hashtag #nda15.

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srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

For years growing up, Jesse Florkowski was focused on bowling.

Born without a right arm, he astounded onlookers, fellow athletes and even coaches with his ability to stay balanced and dial in strike after strike.

Looking back on it now, the 28-year-old’s life was shaped a great deal by what happened in Medicine Hat before he got to finish junior high.

“I’ve always said if I had to choose between golf and bowling, golf would definitely be at the top of my list,” said Florkowski, a four-time North American One-Armed Golf Association champion who also went to the national college finals with his hometown Rattlers three times. “I can credit a lot of that from Notre Dame.”

He transferred from St. Mary’s to be one of the first students when Notre Dame Academy opened in September 2004. The middle school featured sports-specific instruction for three sports at the time: hockey, baseball and golf.

Not bowling.

“I believe around that time I was still representing Alberta at nationals for bowling, I went twice,” said Florkowski. “Golf was kind of neck-and-neck with bowling. When golfing’s on, bowling’s kind of on the back burner. Then when golf is done for the season, bowling starts up. They never intertwined.”

But the golf academy made use of a year-round driving range in Dunmore, which has since closed down. Suddenly, Florkowski’s handicap was going lower. And wouldn’t you know it, the academy coach — Trevor Moore — wound up coaching the Medicine Hat College golf team six years later.

This is not all to say Florkowski has stopped knocking down pins. In 2014 — the same year he competed at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association golf championships for the first time — he also recorded his 10th perfect game in bowling.

Now living in Edmonton after leaving his assistant’s job at the Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club, competitive bowling could again be on the table. But his golfing resume is quite a bit longer, and likely has a few more pages to be added.

“I hope golf is still in my life for the future, for a long time,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that golf wasn’t included in the Paralympics, 2024 is the next opportunity. What we’ve got going for us is golf is in the actual Olympics now, that’ll be huge.”

If it were added to the Paralympic program right now, Florkowski would be one of the favourites for gold. He had to settle for silver this summer at the one-armed championships after rattling off four straight titles. He’s won international one-armed long drive competitions, and when he was on the Rattlers was typically among the leaders, even winning a couple provincial events against two-armed competitors.

When he thinks back to that one year at Notre Dame, golf was certainly a big part of it but he does note it still wasn’t the most important thing. In the end it was just a modified physical education class that stood out.

“The thing about a sports school, I think a lot of kids think ‘oh, you’re just focusing on sport,'” said Florkowski. “They incorporated schoolwork, the focus was on having schoolwork done before sports.

“I think for the most part when I was there for the first year, they did a tremendous job doing the school and sports thing combined together.”

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