They are most admirable, these folks who see a chance to make a difference and veer off on a path to teach or to coach.

It’s just that sometimes the passion burns so fervently within that they take on both tasks – to teach and to coach. To embrace both loves, said Claire Edwards, spared her the agonizing decision to choose between them.

“Truthfully, I love the game of golf. But I love the connection you make with people, which is why I love teaching,” said Edwards. So she’s all in.

“Right now, she’s a fulltime (graduate) student seven hours a day,” said Bruce Chalas, in his 16th season as head coach of the Boston University women’s golf team. “Then she spends four or five hours coaching BU golf.

“She’s a hard worker. She knows the intricacies of the game and she knows the golf swing.”

Claire Edwards also was the quickest sell in the history of golf recruiting. A true Midwesterner who was born and raised in Zionsville, Ind., and played four years for the women’s golf team at Butler College in Indianapolis, Edwards was introduced to Chalas by Bruce’s son, Greg.

Greg Chalas lives in Indianapolis and plays his golf out of Crooked Stick CC, which is where Edwards was working after graduating from Butler.

“We met at Crooked Stick one day,” said Bruce Chalas, who discovered that Claire had graduated but wanted to continue her education in speech pathology.

Oh, and something else.

“She said she wanted to be a fulltime college women’s golf coach,” said BU’s longtime coach.

The pitch, the passion, the insight of a four-year collegiate player . . . all of it made a quick impression.

“I think it took me about 30 seconds to say to her, ‘If you help me, I’ll help you.’ ”

Intrigued as she was to get Chalas’ support, Edwards did not lose sight of her mission. “Education was the most important thing to me,” she said. “I had set my sights high and got into three (graduate programs).”

In the end, Edwards chose BU over Northwestern to continue speech pathology. It’s a study that hits home and speaks to the young woman’s character.

“My closest friend, Matt, had autism. He had no friends so when we were in third and fourth grades, I’d go with him to the library on recess for his special needs. It impacted me and in middle school I continued to be involved with Best Buddies.”

Her desire to help and to make a difference was born. Throughout college, Edwards was involved in community service programs. “I always knew there was a world around us that had people who at the end of the day needed help to overcome their struggles.”

The love of golf started innocently enough, a young girl playing at a local nine-holer with her father and grandfather. Along the way she was introduced to tennis and basketball, too, but by the time she arrived at Zionsville High School, Claire Edwards was a golfer and her love of the game only deepened at Butler.

The accolades confirm Edwards’ commitment to being both a “student” and an “athlete.” Cited as an All-America Scholar by the Women’s Golf Coaches of America, she also was named All Big East First Team in her junior year, 2020-21. She played varsity all four years and after her sophomore season was cut short by COVID, Edwards played every round in her junior and senior seasons.

What led Edwards to consider how speech pathology and coaching golf could co-exist in her world were the circumstances of her senior year. As a fourth-year starter, Edwards said she spent a lot of time mentoring younger teammates, “almost like was already an assistance coach.”

At the time, she was also doing speech classes part-time and the thought occurred to her. “My speech classes are about helping people and that’s what coaching is. So much of what we do is helping young adults with things in their life,” said Edwards.

In Chalas, Edwards perhaps couldn’t have a better mentor.

“First day she was on the job (in the fall of 2022), she was ready to go,” laughs Chalas. “So I said, ‘Here’s what we do. On Day 1, you coach. You coach, I’ll be there to help.”

It made total sense to Chalas, who has played the game for nearly 60 years and has impeccable credentials – a 1980 appearance in the U.S. Open, 13 other USGA events, a New England Amateur title, a Mass. State Four-ball Championship, and countless other titles.

Forget drawing up pairings, setting up the practice range, getting towels, making sure the push carts were all set, Edwards wasn’t a volunteer assistant to do minutia. Said Chalas: “The best way to learn how to coach is to coach.”

It was important for Edwards to get acclimated to a BU landscape that was different than what she had experienced at Butler. With BU, a university whose student body is 24 percent international, Chalas has a team that reflects the global appeal to golf.

His players are from China, Japan, Taiwan, “and it was an eye-opener for her,” said Chalas. “But to her credit, she has settled in beautifully. She is always smiling, always happy, always there to help.”

As settled as Edwards might have been in her first year on the job, her second season has been rewarding. Not only has the team recorded a victory and a second-place finish, but junior Christy Chen has been brilliant – three first-place spots and a T-3.

At BU, Edwards feels comfortable. In the players, she sees herself – academically driven, passionate about golf. “At BU, it’s about learning and (the players) know they have to do well academically – they want to do well academically. But they are also committed to their golf.”

Wearing two hats isn’t just the players’ job. Coach Edwards’ schedule this year includes five classes and four speech clients.

“It keeps me busy,” she said. “But I enjoy it.”

Chalas enjoys the energy Edwards brings to the team.

“I lucked out,” he said. “I got a call last year from a school looking for her to coach. But she wants to finish her Masters and then she has to work a year to get her license.

“Bottom line, at Crooked Stick she would work six days, 70 hours a week. She’d do double-loops. That’s my kind of coach. She loves it. She’s fantastic.”