Winona State University women’s golf team welcomes a new head golf coach this year.  Xenia Straight has been playing golf for almost 20 years and assisting the men’s team with her husband, Jeff Straight, for three years. She took over the women’s team in May of 2017.

“We’ve created some unforgettable moments this fall while traveling to tournaments with the five girls on the team,” Straight said.

She first became interested in golf after meeting her husband. She saw how much he admired golf, and realized she had to play.

“I decided if he and I were going to be together, I better start playing,” Straight said.

She first became competitive by playing soccer against local boys. She grew up in El Salvador, raised by her mother and grandmother. They worked very hard to keep their family safe and to get food on the table for her and her brother.  She often had a piece of bread and coffee for breakfast, if she was lucky. Growing up in El Salvador was dangerous for Xenia, they were living in the middle of a civil war.

“It was very difficult and scary to say the least, growing up there [SIC],” she said.

The civil war lasted for twelve years and more than 75,000 people were killed. The conflict waged between the El Salvador government and a coalition of five guerrilla groups. There was deliberate terrorizing and targeting of civilians as well as recruitment for child soldiers. The military groups used fire bombs, which were used on a few of the school busses that Xenia rode on to get to school. Many families were robbed and many people were killed.

“It’s hard when I think back to some of the horrible things that I saw as a kid,” Straight said.

She got the opportunity to leave El Salvador when she was 17 years old, and chose to come to the United States, where she met Jeff.

The Straights moved to Winona when Jeff was recruited to work at the J.R. Watkins Company. Xenia was a boss at an airline business in food production for a long time, so being a leader comes naturally for her, but she says she is working hard every day to become a better coach. She has been working hard to recruit more girls to play on her team in the 2018-19 school year and for the future, and plans to stick around to take care of her girls as long as the school will have her.

Straight enjoys playing golf in her free time with some of her friends in the community as well as spending time with her two sons, Eric and Austin. She also enjoys taking pictures when she isn’t hard at work or enjoying family time.