From golf to speech to academics to power lifting, Ailani Thiravong is a master of all trades – Post Bulletin

AUSTIN, Minn. — When David Brown runs down Ailani Thiravong’s resume in his mind, he can’t help but smile and shake his head.

“With everything that she’s involved in, not just golf… she’s an amazing person,” Brown, the Austin High School girls golf head coach said. “She’s going to run the world someday.”

As a high school sophomore, Thiravong may not have her sights set on running the world, but if she put her mind to it, she just might be able to do it.

She’s done seemingly everything else a teenager a can do:

She has qualified for state tournaments in golf and speech and debate.

The young dynamo set records in her first meet with the Austin Packers power lifting team last year.

She has also tried trap shooting, which she said helps her with her focus.

If that’s not enough, Thiravong is the No. 1 student in her class and the vice president of the Austin High Student Council, as a sophomore. She also helped to create the Asian Student Union at Austin High, a group that celebrates Asian culture and Asian students at the school. The group had more than three dozen students show up for its inaugural meeting last November.

She also recently joined her mother, Watsana, on a local public television show where they demonstrated their cooking skills. Watsana made egg rolls, Ailani wowed with her Crab Rangoons, a dish that she has perfected after her father Karounna taught her to make it more than a decade ago.

“I’ve added my own twist to the recipe,” Ailani said with a laugh. “Secret ingredients that I can’t reveal.”

That she’s been able to master a dish like Crab Rangoon is as impressive as all the other bullet points on her resume. But, what’s perhaps most impressive is that she has found so much success at everything she has tried.

“On top of all of that,” Brown said, “she is as quality of a human being as you are going to find.”

Indeed, Ailani Thiravong is not your normal teenager.

She finds that she’s at her most focused in the later hours of the evening, often completing homework and studying at times when other teens have turned off the laptop in favor of TikTok.

“Sometimes my mom will come downstairs and she’ll be like ‘you do realize it’s 10 o’clock, right?’ And I’ll say ‘yeah mom, but I’m doing great right now,” Ailani said. “I’m more of a night person. And I’m so grateful to have the support and understanding of my teachers. I couldn’t be where I am today without the support of all my teachers and staff members at the high school.”

That’s the kicker with Thiravong, she doesn’t speak of her own accomplishments without crediting everyone who has helped her reach her goals. In her mind, her success is the school’s success and the community’s success.

She firmly believes she wouldn’t have finished fifth in the Section 1, Class 3A golf meet or 34th at the Class 3A state meet last year without the help of all of her coaches, teammates and family.

Nor would she have set power lifting records in her first try, or won a speech and debate section championship, without the guidance of teachers, coaches, mentors and teammates.

“She is everything she appears to be,” said Brown, who has coached Thiravong since she joined the Packers’ varsity golf team as a seventh grader in 2022. “Her resume is endless, but she’s as good of a person as there is. She’s No. 1 in her class. As just a sophomore, she’s Student Council vice president.

“She’s … the past couple years at Christmas time, she has decided, on her own, to write Christmas cards and send them to all of the coaches in the Big Nine (Conference) just to say ‘thank you’ for their support. It’s amazing.”

Thiravong is very much an in-the-moment person. Whatever she is doing at the present time is what has 100 percent of her attention. That mindset has served her well on the golf course and in life. She has the ability to compartmentalize her rounds and her ultra-busy day-to-day schedule.

“My personal favorite way to organize my day is an agenda, which sounds old school,” she said, “but I love making lists because then when I complete a task, I get to check it off.

“It makes me feel accomplished, like I’ve completed something. So I do my best during the day to focus on schoolwork. If I’m at the golf course, I’m focusing on golf. I’m focusing on improving my game. But when I’m at school, I’m focusing on the subject, the task at hand. I truly am involved at my school, but whatever event I’m at, I want to put 110% of my effort and dedication into what I’m doing.”

Thiravong will do that this week when she attempts to qualify for the Class 3A golf state meet for a second consecutive season, as the Section 1-3A meet is set for Tuesday and Thursday at Cannon Golf Club in Cannon Falls. She’s one of three golfers who placed in the top five in the section and is back this year. The others are Northfield junior Karina Johnson and Owatonna junior Carmen Jirele, the defending section and state champion.

“Ailani’s game is so solid. She works exceptionally hard, like she does at everything,” Brown said. “She has gotten so strong so fast, with her power lifting, that she’s hitting the ball (so far) and into positions she’s not used to playing from. She’s having to adjust to her new power.

“… She’s really working on her game. She’s very capable of going really low. When she’s on, she’s really on.”

Thiravong also credited her sister, Megan, for pushing her to be her best on the course and off. When their family moved back to Austin, from Illinois, prior to the 2022-23 school year, Ailani and Megan Thiravong spent a lot of time on the course together in the summer months, when Megan was home from Saginaw Valley State. She played golf for the Division II program and was named All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this spring.

“My sister and I are six years apart, so we had an age gap,” Ailani said. “But we were able to build a relationship on the golf course, even though we had that gap. The golf course is where my family bonded and we grew together.

“We support each other, and that’s really awesome to have someone who’s in the game, made it to college. And I’m really just following in her footsteps.”

While Ailani will certainly soon have Division I scouts and coaches knocking on her door, she said she’s interested in pursuing the Divsion II route for college golf, primarily so she has free time to pursue all of her other interests. She’s also kicking around a number of different majors she might pursue.

“I’ve thought about a few different pathways,” she said, “but I think my mind is kind of split between either engineering, like industrial engineering or the business management and marketing pathway, which are two very different pathways.

“But I enjoy working with people. I enjoy volunteering and helping others, uplifting people. And honestly, having that leadership aspect in my life is something that I really enjoy. And knowing that I’m making positive impacts on our school and community is something that is really awesome.”