Friday, Sep. 19, 2008

Programs Looking for Legends of the Spring

Golf Journal

By John English

Contributing Writer

The season is just getting under way for the Marcus golf team, and coach Craig Koch said that while he does have a lot of younger players, he has a lot of talent on both teams as well.

Koch said his major objective for the fall season is to find his top five players for the spring.

"This season is going to be fun," Koch said. "Our girls went out to Myrtle Beach [S.C.] and placed fifth. There were 11 teams there. For the boys, our big one is coming up [today] and Saturday, and that’s the Bart Granger.

"In my three years, we have improved in our placing at that tournament every year, so I expect us to do that again."

Koch said this tournament will give him the opportunity to see what he has on the boys side.

"We’re cutting some teeth with some younger players," Koch said. "So it may take us a little bit longer to get where we are trying to go, but we are throwing some right into the fire. We want to figure out who will be able to handle that responsibility."

Koch said he will rely on two players to lead the boys team this season, Jeremy LeGuen and Bruce Brockinton.

"Jeremy was one stroke away from going to state last year," Koch said. "Bruce had a real good spring for us last year."

On the girls side, the Marcus team returns most of a regional qualifying team from last school year.

"Carly Ragains is a sophomore, and she tied for 12th out there at Myrtle Beach," Koch said. "I expect her to be very good. The exciting thing about our girls is that we’re going to have about nine players pushing for the top spots. We have four returners from the regional tournament team that placed fifth last year."

The other three players from that team are Stephanie Greider, Miranda Sutton and Lyndie Smith.

"We’re setting our sights really, really high," Koch said. "I really like where our girls are sitting."

Over at Flower Mound, coach Dave Self said he, too, has liked what he has seen from his team so far.

"We’re a young team still, but I am real excited about the group we have," Self said. "We have real good girls and boys individually, and the team seems to be getting stronger and stronger."

Flower Mound starts its season at the Bart Granger tournament, where it will play 36 holes today and 18 on Saturday, and said he is mainly working this fall to get his team in place for next semester as well.

"There will be 50 teams from all over the state at the Bart Granger, so it’s a big event," Self said. "It’s a long season, and right now we are just trying to find out who our players will be for the spring season. We don’t really know what to expect at this point. I know the kids have pretty high expectations, and they are looking to improve."

Self said he expects juniors Devin Chang and David Pryde to have strong seasons, as well as freshman Laura Deleonardis, who Self said looks to be the number-one girls player for the Jaguars this year.

"We’re expecting good things from her," Self said. "She’s had a real good summer and played a lot of competitive golf, and she’s had success at some higher level events, too."

Self said he also expects Beth Daily to have a good year.

"She has had steady improvement and been quite a nice surprise for us," Self said.

Self said his teams have not been determined at all yet, but said that is what he will use the fall tournaments to work out.

"That’s still up in the air," Self said. "We have seven girls battling, and about six to eight boys battling it out, so we’ll see how the fall goes."