The Boys Varsity golf team’s season came to an end yesterday as the boys competed at the regional competition at Davison Country Club. The team shot a team score of 319 which placed them sixth in the region out of the 16 teams that competed. Ben Roeder had a team low 73 and will be advancing to the State competition as an individual. Also scoring for the Chargers was senior Austin Deiters with a 78 and senior Derek Striker with an 85. Junior Ben Morgan rounded out the scoring with an 88.
“To be going to states is really exciting,” Roeder said. “I’m excited to play against the best competition in the state”.
Even though their season has come to an end, this season has been a very memorable one for the team and especially for the six seniors.
One of the most memorable highlights of the year was winning the SVL for the third straight year in a row. This has never been done under current head coach Mark Pickering. Last Thursday in the SVL championship held at the Fortress in Frankenmuth, the Chargers shot a team score of 315 which was two strokes better than MHS and three strokes ahead of Saginaw Heritage. Accomplishing this task was very special for the team and especially for captain Austin Deiters who has been on the varsity team all four years of his high school career.
“It was cool to make school history and win the valley three straight years in a row,” Deiters said. “I’m happy that all are hard work in practice finally paid off and we have something to show for it.”
Another memorable highlight of the year was the team dinners the team would have the night before a big tournament. The team held the first team dinner at Pizza Sams the night before they played in the second jamboree of the year at their home course. The other dinners took place on the night before the third jamboree and the night before the SVL championship. At these team dinners the team had the opportunity to bond with each other and participate in various activities such as basketball, ping pong, the putting game, and the card game Euchre.
“I’m going to miss our team dinners because they were a lot of fun,” senior Davis Milholland said. “Playing Euchre with all the guys was really fun and I’m going to miss that.”
Even though the seniors are going to miss all the team bonding activities with the entire team they will especially miss the special bond they had among themselves (the six seniors: James Volk, Kevin Scott, Max Volk, Derek Striker, Austin Deiters, and Davis Milholland). These six seniors all started playing golf with each other in middle school and have all been on the golf team together for three years. They have spent countless hours on the course practicing amongst them and spending time with each other in and out of season.
“We’ve all been good friends since 7th grade when we started playing together as a group,” Deiters said. “It’s sad knowing that we all won’t be on the same team next year but it was really fun while it lasted,”
On top of missing each other the seniors will also miss their coaches Mark Pickering and Doug Bradford who have been their coaches for four years now. These two men have spent a lot of time with this group of guys, helping them improve their games.
“I’m going to miss Coach Pickering because he’s an awesome coach and a better guy,” senior Kevin Scott said. “He has helped all of us with our golf games and I think we are all better golfers because of him,”
