Brigid Toleman

Brigid Toleman only started playing golf because of an injury. After playing field hockey in eighth and ninth grade, Toleman wound up needing hip surgery. She took up golf the following year, and the rest is history. As an individual sport, Toleman says golf has taught her valuable life skills.

“I think it really helps with leadership because it’s only about you,” she said. “You’re the one playing the sport, and you don’t have teammates around you in the same way as in team sports. It helps with your physical and mental health because you realize that you can only change by improving yourself. You have to practice on your own, and you can’t rely on your team. I think that’s a really important mindset that golf helps build.”

Toleman certainly improved herself, especially when it came to her golf game. This season, she became the first-ever girl in Cambridge’s history to qualify for and play in the Section 2 Girls Golf Sectionals, finishing in the upper half of the field. Toleman’s coaches say her dedication and hard work helped her reach these heights.

“While most may have given up on a fall sport, Brigid threw herself into anything her physical therapist approved, and luckily for us, that was golf,” said Bruce Sausville, Head Golf Coach. “Throughout her years on the golf team, and as the only female, she encouraged others to join and work to improve their game. Her commitment to growth inspires her teammates to raise their own standards and give their best effort.”

With no girls team at Cambridge Central, Toleman competed by herself in girls golf competitions. Cambridge does have a men’s team, which Toleman not only earned her way onto but also captained during her junior and senior years.

“I think I’m really good at helping my teammates and speaking up,” she said. “If anyone ever needs me, they can always rely on me. I’m accountable, and I think I’m a good leader as a captain.”

A two-sport captain, Toleman also led Cambridge’s varsity basketball team. But that wasn’t the only basketball team she was a part of. Instead of playing another season of softball, Toleman decided to spend her senior spring coaching the unified basketball team.

“Going to unified really warmed my heart,” she said. “I’m really glad I was able to join this year because it’s so heartwarming to have kids with special abilities be able to play basketball. Everyone is so supportive, and they just love the game. It really blesses my heart and makes me feel so warm to be able to coach those kids and play with them.”

“In a program dedicated to breaking down barriers for athletes with disabilities, Brigid’s natural empathy, patience, and leadership shine brightly,” said Athletic Director Andrew J. Lapitsky. “She is the epitome of what Unified sports represent, ensuring every teammate feels valued, included, and celebrated.”

Toleman was also involved with Divided Sky Recovery Center’s annual fun run, supporting their addiction recovery program in Vermont. She said that helping with registration and handing out medals was a way she could help others improve their resilience.

“I think that helped me realize I want to be part of improving people’s physical and emotional well-being and changing lives,” Toleman said.

From this desire to help others, and from her own personal experience with injuries, Toleman has chosen to study exercise science at High Point University with the goal of becoming a physical therapist.

“After eight months of physical therapy, and even before that when I had Sever’s disease in my foot and had to wear a boot for a while, I spent a lot of my life in physical therapy,” she said. “The physical therapists were the best, and they always pushed me to be better. That really made me want to do the same by helping athletes recover through the healing process and change their lives.”

According to Toleman, winning this award is proof that her hard work didn’t go unnoticed. “It makes me very proud,” she said. “Through all my accomplishments in golf, basketball, softball, and in the community, it feels like everything paid off. I was so honored to receive this award. I honestly never thought I’d get it, and it’s truly an honor. It makes me very proud of everything I’ve accomplished in my life.”