Finishing with an overall record of 25-18 and a Frontier Athletic Conference record of 13-7 has only made the Tigers varsity Golf team from McClain hungry for more success.
Tigers Head Coach Brandon Streitenberger knows that his team wants to improve over the 2017 season.
“The Tigers hope to improve on last year’s third place finish in the FAC. The Tigers return everyone from that squad except Caleb Pointer who graduated,” said Streitenberger.
Streitenberger will rely on two senior returning golfers to perform well this season and mirror their success from last season.
“Top returners for the Tigers are seniors Trevor Newkirk and Kobe Penwell who were both First Team All-FAC selections. Newkirk was also “golfer of the year” in the FAC as well as a district qualifier. Rounding out the McClain varsity squad are junior Trenton Newkirk and senior Zane Mustard. All four golfers started in every varsity match last year,” Streitenberger told The Times-Gazette.
McClain will look to their experience on the golf course as a strength during the 2018 season.
“The Tigers strengths this year lies with their experience on the links and the growing interest in the program. The Tigers have 16 players this year which includes five freshmen,” said Streitenberger.
Streitenberger realizes that the FAC will be very competitive in 2018 and knows the only way the team will succeed is to improve on a daily basis.
“Overall, the league will be very competitive this year. Virtually every team has their core group of starters returning. For us to be successful this fall, we will need to see continued improvement from all of our guys. We don’t worry about wins and losses – just get better and have fun. That’s our goal as a team. Do those two things and the wins will take care of themselves,” according to Streitenberger.
The Tigers were able to make steady improvement last season Streitenberger said, “Last year, in the early going we were scoring in the 200’s as a team. By the end of the year, the team score was in the low 180’s. Hopefully that downward trend continues this fall.”
The Lady Tigers varsity Golf team is ready to take over in the FAC this season and return the talent to be competitive in every match they have this season.
Head Coach Jarrod Haines said, “We have a lot of experience and girls that have spent many hours on the golf course this summer.”
There are three girls returning to the team that the Lady Tigers will look to for improvement this season according to Haines, “Erika Martin, Bryn Karnes and Bri Weller all will be looked upon to improve their scores from a year ago.”
When talking about the goals for the McClain Ladies this season Haines said, “We want to be FAC Champions and battle in our district.”
Haines understands that he will have to rely on his returning golfers this season if the Lady Tigers expect to be successful.
“We have three to four solid returners. We also have a lot of youth and new girls playing,” said Haines.
The Lady Tigers are an exciting group according to Haines and he invited the community to come out and support them by saying, “We have girls that are fun to watch and fun to be around, they have worked extremely hard.”
Haines also took the time to thank the staff at Buckeye Hills, “We would like to thank Buckeye Hills Country Club for working with us for our matches.”
Key Dates
August 30 – The Lady Tigers will host FAC match number four at Buckeye Hills Country Club.
August 27 – The Tigers travel to Washington Court House to take part in FAC match number four.
September 10 – The Tigers will visit Chillicothe Country Club for FAC match number five.
Analysis
The Tigers have a strong core of returning players that should enable them to compete for the FAC crown. Expect to see Trevor Newkirk and Kobe Penwell post low scores all year as they lead the Tigers to the top of their conference.
The Lady Tigers have three returning golfers that will allow them to compete with the teams at the top of the FAC this season. Expect to see Erika Martin, Bri Weller and Bryn Karnes lead the Lady Tigers to a FAC Championship and they could make some noise in tournament play.
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
