FAYETTEVILLE -- Madeleine Wilson didn't complain, blame others or quit playing entirely when she was low on the depth chart for the Fayetteville girls golf team.
Wilson just got busy trying to get better.
Wilson climbed up the depth chart as a senior and she's now Fayetteville's top threat entering the Class 6A girls state golf tournament that's set for today and Wednesday at the Lost Springs Golf and Athletic Club in Rogers.
Springdale Har-Ber is the defending team champion after winning by 29 strokes last year at the Hurricane Golf and Country Club in Bryant. Fayetteville has finished second in the team competition the past two years.
Wilson dabbled in other sports before deciding to join the Fayetteville golf team as a sophomore.
"I just wanted to test the waters and see how it went," said Wilson, who attends Fayetteville Virtual Academy, which provides online course work for students.
Wilson spent her sophomore season as the No. 5 player for Fayetteville in a sport where the scores of the top three or four players are counted for varsity competition. She came back the next year and contributed to team scores by moving up to No. 4 and sometimes No. 3 on the ledger.
Fayetteville Coach Scott Williams said he saw the improvement and credits Wilson for her persistence.
"It was hard work and dedicating her time to practicing at every opportunity," Williams said. "She has an extremely high inner drive and with goals to play at the next level."
Wilson indeed hopes to play golf in college, where she plans to major in English. She doesn't yet have any firm offers yet for golf, but that could change with a strong showing during postseason play. She's put herself in position as a senior with a 74 average and finishing as the medalist in two tournaments. She shot a 1-under 71 and won a tournament at Lost Springs after shooting 1-under 70 at Paradise Valley in Fayetteville earlier this year.
"By the middle of my junior year, I could see I was getting better at golf and I really liked it," Wilson said. "Coming into the season, I wanted to be Number 1 and I knew I could get there if I worked hard enough. My teammates, my coaches, my parents, they've all been very encouraging."
Fayetteville will need all the support it can get to supplant Springdale Har-Ber and its star player, Grace Kilcrease, who finished second behind Mackenzie Lee of North Little Rock at the state tournament last year. Kilcrease blistered the course an 11-under 61 during a tournament earlier this year for the Lady Wildcats. Besides Wilson, Fayetteville will need strong performances from Elizabeth Atchley, Elizabeth Lim and Gia Gentile to surpass Har-Ber and win the team competition.
"We're just hoping as a team to shoot some low scores," Wilson said. "If we win, we win. If we don't, at least we want to be able to say we tried our hardest and did everything we could."