Spring is finally here, and that means it is time for the Hillsboro Hawks Golf team to get back out on the links. As with most other schools, Hillsboro lost the 2020 golf season to Covid-19, but this year the Hawks are back with a few familiar faces, some new ones and are ready to make their mark.
The Hillsboro Golf team will return seven players who competed two years ago on the Junior Varsity and Varsity levels. The Seniors consist of Werner Finder, Kyle Besand, Ryan Cox, Mason Watkins, Zach Font and Elijah Rogers. Levi Webb is the lone Junior.
There are also several returnees who were going to get their first year of golf last season but missed out due to Covid. They include Senior Hayden Oilar and Sophomores Tyler Bone, Logan Cafourek, Andrew Gates, Alexis Johns and Tyler Tieken. New to the team this year is Senior AJ Krasnesky; Juniors Jeremiah Horton and Zach Heine, and Freshmen Robbi Grubbs, Holli Palmer, Gabe Speed and Dustin Stortzum.
When asked about what to expect from his squad this season, Head Coach Brian Sucharski said, “I’m looking to our seniors early on this season to lead the way, but I believe that we will get contributions from many of our younger players as the season progresses”.
Sucharski will keep the game plan simple this year, with a focus on steady progress and camaraderie. “The expectations and goals for our team this year and every year are to continue to improve on a daily basis,” Sucharski said, “I know that we are going to have some ups and downs on the course this year, but we will fight through it together, and learn the valuable life lessons that golf can teach us.”
With the previous season completely lost, the strength of this team will be in its players’ ability to come together as a team when they face adversity on the course. “So far, I have been very pleased with the excitement level and the camaraderie that they have displayed during our practices. The number one strength that we have as a team is that our students have positive relationships with each other and help each other out on the course. All of our kids have shown a strong desire to learn how to play the game and become competitive at it.”
This year’s schedule gives the athletes a very wide range of opponents in an equal balance of matches and tournaments. “Our schedule will hopefully help our players see where they need to improve so that they are ready for the conference and district tournaments at the end of the season,” said Sucharski.
“I believe that from what our kids have demonstrated so far in practices, that we are going to improve as the year goes on. We want to be better on the last day of the season than we are now. I’m really just excited that it appears that we will be able to get in a golf season this year. I’m happy that our kids get the opportunities that they missed out on last year.”
Cheers to that, and good luck to the golfing Hawks this season.
