Coming off a team trip to sectionals last season, the Oconto Falls High School golf team has high expectations for 2015.
The Panthers return four of their top six golfers.
“I know I’m excited and I hope the kids are as excited as I am, because it looks on paper that we should be competitive,” second-year coach Scott Schroeder said. “It’s up to them now to put in the time to make their scores happen and to move forward.”
Oconto Falls will have to replace two of its top three golfers. Gone to graduation are No. 1 player Kyle Fiedler and James Salscheider, who both played three years of varsity golf.
“You could always count on those guys to put up a number and that was always kind of nice last year,” Schroeder said.
A pair of seniors will be relied on heavily this season: Jacob Stoinski and Jordan Koppa. Stoinski qualified for sectionals as a sophomore and last year tied for 32nd, shooting an 87, at sectionals.
Koppa, who will be the No. 2 golfer behind Stoinski, earned plenty of varsity time last season but wasn’t in the top five at sectionals.
In Oconto Falls’ first meet of the season at Lakebreeze Golf Course on April 14, Stoinski nailed a hole-in-one, the first of his career.
“It was good for him to start off the season like that,” Schroeder said. “I know he didn’t have the score he wanted. It’s a neat memory, but he just doesn’t realize it yet.”
Schroeder believes Stoinski can make a good run at sectionals and have a good shot at heading to state his senior season.
“He’s got a really strong ethic. I know he’s been doing the little things in the weight room and things at school, too, to enhance his athleticism,” Schroeder said. “He realizes that some of those kids have that, and he wanted it. The sky’s the limit for him. If he plays one hole at a time, I can see him putting together some really low numbers.”
Juniors Ben Stoinski and Nathan Brauer will be the third and fourth options for Oconto Falls. Both guys were integral members of last year’s sectional team. Brauer finished in a tie for 56th (96) at sectionals, and Stoinski was four strokes back in 63rd.
Having four key varsity players back will be huge for the Panthers.
“The younger guys see how hard the older guys work and how much it means to them,” Schroeder said. “At the beginning of the season, I asked them to share stories about rules or tournaments and things that hopefully they can learn from their mistakes, some of the ways that they succeeded as well, and the changes they made or some adaptations they made on the course to help them succeed.
“It’s really nice to have those guys to lead the group so you don’t have to be the one saying everything.”
Early in the season it’s a tight competition to see who will emerge as the team’s No. 5 golfer. Sophomore transfer Vince Norling, from Arizona, and juniors Jack Huberty and Isaac Steffens, who both played well on junior varsity last season, are vying for the opening.
“I think they’re counting on earning that fifth spot,” Schroeder said. “It’s good to have options if people are out and about.”
Two other seniors, Jake Lotter and Ross Pumplin, are also in the mix for playing time.
Even though it’s early on, the Panthers are still trying to work out the kinks on the course and get in condition to do some damage in the postseason.
“Right now, we’re struggling with the short game,” Schroeder said. “… That’s always the early season bugaboo, because the greens aren’t always true and stuff like that. Hopefully we can improve those things and start to see the scores go down.”
Schroeder and his players have high expectations as the season starts to heat up.
“We’re in a competitive conference, so competing in every triangular and most of the invitationals we have are with the bigger schools, so that’s kind of nice to gauge ourselves against them,” Schroeder said.
“The goals realistically are to make it to sectionals again and be very competitive there,” Schroeder said. “We had an opportunity to be more competitive last year and if we played our best, good things could have happened. I think that’s why the kids have such lofty goals because they were able to live that last year and able to see that they’re not that far away.”
After tying for fourth in the Bay Conference in 2014, Schroeder is hoping for another middle-of-the-pack finish this season.
Marinette, which lost some strong seniors from last year’s state team, returns another solid squad. Shawano, with standout Braden Mueller, and New London will both be strong. After those three teams, the Bay could be pretty wide open, Schroeder said.
“There’s not going to be an easier triangular this year,” Schroeder said. “If you play your best, you could probably come out on top, which is kind of exciting as a coach to watch the scores and watch the kids come in. We’re going to have to be good at math this year.”
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