RJ Voss was in tears watching his daughter, Avery, golf on May 4.
He could not be at the Veenker Memorial Golf Course in Ames to watch her and the rest of the Ames girls golf team that he coaches compete in the Turk Bowman Invitational. Voss was at home resting after spending nearly two weeks in the hospital following open-heart surgery to replace his entire ascending aorta.
One of the Ames parents allowed RJ to watch a little bit of his daughter’s performance during a FaceTime call. He also followed how the girls were doing on the Kodiak Golf app.
Ames ended up placing fifth out of 11 teams with an 18-hole score of 418. Three-time defending Class 3A state champion Gilbert won the meet with a score of 339.
Avery Voss shot a 139 to finish 57th. She is coming off hip surgery after getting injured during the 2025 softball season, so she was not expecting to put up a low score.
All she cared about was knowing her dad could watch her golf.
“When I got the news that he was coming home yesterday (May 3) instead of tomorrow (May 5), I was so excited,” Avery said. “He was over the moon. He was crying all day long.”
Even though he had just gotten home after spending two weeks in the hospital, RJ wanted nothing more than to go out to Veenker and watch his girls golf.
“This tournament is his baby,” said Ames assistant coach Drew DeJong. “He even threatened to come out today, but I was like, ‘No, no, no…stay home and get better.'”
RJ has been coaching high school golf at Ames for nearly three decades. He started coaching the boys in 1999, and he took over the girls program in 2011.
He wanted to hold off on his surgery until June, but due to health concerns for someone of his size — RJ stands 6-foot-5 — his doctors decided to move it up to April 21.
RJ had a Dacron medical graft, which replaced his aortic root, aortic arch, and two valves. He had to undergo an eight-hour surgery.
The surgery went fine, but because he had to be on bypass, he encountered kidney issues. That required him to spend eight days in the ICU and six in the cardiac care step-down unit before he was released on May 3.
“I was finally able to bring him home last night,” said RJ’s wife, Brietta Voss. “The community, friends and family have been incredibly supportive. On the day of surgery, we had over 600 messages of prayers, thinking of you, ‘You got this’, and so much more. He is truly loved by so many.”
Because he will require a long recovery, RJ will not coach or teach the rest of the school year. His players have missed him dearly on the golf course.
“I was pretty emotional,” said Ames senior golfer Jessie Lohman. “I really like having RJ as a coach. It has been difficult not having him there.”
Lohman was part of last year’s Ames girls golf team that brought home the program’s first team state championship. The Little Cyclones won the Class 4A title by one stroke over Waukee Northwest and Pleasant Valley.
Lohman was the fourth-scoring golfer on that team, which won in dramatic fashion thanks to a clutch putt from Emersen Motl. Lohman placed 33rd overall.
She and her teammates enjoyed sharing tears of joy with their coach once they secured the state title. Lohman said it is hard not to have the big presence that RJ brings every day to the course.
“He just has this personality that just radiates,” Lohman said. “He has a big voice that carries. If I’m on one side of the course and he’s on a different hole, I can still hear him sometimes. I miss hearing that.”
But Ames is still in good hands.
DeJong has been RJ’s right-hand man as an assistant coach for over a decade. He already has experience heading up the team when RJ had to miss most of the girls season in the spring of 2023 after suffering an infection following leg surgery.
“I’ve been thrown into this position before,” DeJong said. “I know how things run and Lyle (Fedders), our athletic director, has been great.”
Fedders added two more assistants to the Ames staff —Kyle Walker and Jonnie Becker.
“They’ve been a great help,” DeJong said. “It’s been great to have them on board.”
Ames faces an uphill climb in its quest to return to state and defend its 4A title.
The Little Cyclones lost three of the top 16 golfers from last year’s state meet in Motl, Macy Button and Elizabeth Duncan, along with top-45 finisher Estelle Wong. Lohman, Avery Voss and sophomore Zoey Johnson are the only golfers returning with state experience.
But do not count the Little Cyclones out.
“We just got to get over this little hump,” DeJong said. “This team is very capable.”
If Ames makes a strong final push and qualifies for the state meet, which will be held at Waverly Golf Course at the end of the month, RJ will be itching to be there for his girls.
“He believes that he is going to be golfing, fishing and doing whatever he does in the next couple of weeks or so,” Avery Voss said. “I think he needs to take it down a notch, but telling someone with a personality like his — we already know the answer.”
Of course, his wife and doctors will likely have the final say.
That is just fine with his daughter.
“We won a state championship together, and there really isn’t much more of a moment we wanted together around golf,” Avery Voss said. “His health is a lot more important than him coaching my high school golf season.”
Joe Randleman covers high school sports for the Ames Tribune. Contact him at jrandleman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeRandleman
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames girls golf motivated by coach RJ Voss after his open heart surgery
Reporting by Joe Randleman, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
