Diamond Bar’s Athletic Scholars
May 22, 2013
Isabelle Shee, a senior varsity golfer at Diamond Bar High School, just recently accepted an athletic scholarship to UC Riverside. This opportunity has been an impelling cause for Shee to strive and excel at golf as well as part of the reason she started playing.
Influenced by her family, Shee started playing golf when she was 13 years old. A year later, she started playing for the Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms Resort.
Shee has been on the DB varsity golf team since her freshman year. This year, the Lady Brahmas took second place in State Finals and won CIF Championship.
“I’ve been working really hard to get a scholarship ever since I started and I’m glad I got this opportunity,” Shee said.
Tatum Lockett, a devoted varsity soccer player at DBHS, was recently admitted into UC Riverside, also on an athletic scholarship.
Outside of school, Lockett currently plays for Legends FC, a professional youth soccer organization. She started playing soccer when she was three years old and has been on the school’s varsity soccer team since her freshman year.
Lockett plans to play professionally while earning her degree in Business Management at UC Riverside.
“A scholarship wasn’t really something I planned. I just played for fun at the beginning. I started getting more serious about it by sophomore year,” Lockett said.
Lockett’s two older brothers, both former DBHS athletes, received football scholarships and served as an inspiration and role model throughout her life. “My family definitely plays a big role. My brothers are the ones who really pushed me to be where I am now,” Lockett said.
Jason Chen, a senior at DB was recruited by Princeton University because of his exceptional skills in golf, as well as his academic dedication.
In October, Chen received a letter from Princeton ensuring his admission to the fall 2013 school year, as long as he maintained his academic standards. In December, he received a formal acceptance letter and will be joining Princeton’s golf team.
During his recruitment, Chen had the option to choose among the Ivy League colleges. Many aspects of Princeton were appealing to Chen, since he was looking for a “good balance between sports and education.” He was offered an athletic scholarship by many prestigious colleges, such as Stanford University and UC Berkley. However, Chen was not looking to be on the road playing tournaments for the majority of his time. He preferred Princeton’s calm environment as well as the quality of its golf team. Chen plans to play in the PGA after graduating Princeton with a business degree.
Chen was first introduced to golf when he was nine years old by his parents at Industry Hills Golf Club at Pacific Palms Resort. Since then, Chen has played many tournaments all around the world, including Europe, Japan, Korea, and China. Last year, Chen was ranked the 38th junior golfer in the country by American Junior Golf Association.
Kristie Yang, a dedicated golfer as well as an excellent student, received a scholarship to play golf at Southern Illinois University.
Driven by her father, who had dreams of becoming a professional golfer himself, Yang started playing golf recreationally when she was eight. However, in middle school, she started to take golf to another level and she competed in junior tournaments all throughout Southern California. Yang played for numerous clubs such as Southern California PGA, All- American Junior Golf, and Junior Amateur Golf Scholars. She has been on the DB varsity ever since her freshman year and became captain as a sophomore.
Though she trained rigorously for the scholarship, Yang reveals that she did not plan to attend a specific college or career. Instead, she looked for colleges that wanted her and chose the best from those.
Yang leaves home “excited to get the full college experience of growing.”
