Eagles golf ready for 2009

Thursday, April 9, 2009

At 4:30 p.m. today, the Eagles' boys golf team will begin what looks to be a year of rebuilding.

The Eagles return only one senior to squad this year in Damon Robinson and are under first year head coach Brian McClure's leadership.

"We're a young team this year," McClure said. "We lost our best golfer from last year, Tyler Newby, and we have seven freshmen and sophomores, two juniors and one senior. So we're a very young team with very little experience.

"So it might seem like a rebuilding year for us, but I have already seen some improvement from some of our freshmen in the first couple weeks of practice," McClure said. "So I'm excited to see what they are going to do on the course."

Two of the freshmen, Alex Eickhoff and Alex Kelly have already caught McClure's eye.

"Kelly and Eickhoff are working their way into the top and we actually had to shoot a playoff qualifier today (Wednesday) and Kelly shot a 41, his best ever," McClure said. "So that's an improvement already."

With only one senior on the team, McClure is looking to other players on the team to step up

"Robinson, Mike Nichols, Tyler Cox, and Dylan Gilbert are going to be our nucleus of this team this year," McClure said. "Those four will be our top four all year long and the two freshmen will be battling for the number five spot."

One thing is for sure, McClure will be looking at Robinson for leadership.

"I mentioned to Robinson that he has to be the leader this year and that this team will go as far as he does," McClure said. "All the other golfers are going to be looking up to him, so he has to step up this year."

With this being his first year as head coach, McClure said that he doesn't plan on coming in a changing a bunch of things; he just wants to see the team improve.

"I want to improve our work ethic from last year," McClure said. "I followed along last year as a volunteer coach and I saw a lot of kids last year not being really committed and that is something that I have been throwing around this year.

"I want them to be committed to the team and put the effort into that they need to compete," McClure said.

When he was asked if he set any goals for his new team, he said that he didn't set any high ones.

"I really don't have high expectations of us firing out of the gate, but I want to see us progress thoughout the season and hopefully we will be much better at the end with the experience that we gain," McClure said.

The Eagles start their 2009 season today at 4:30 when they travel to Owen Valley for a three-way match with the Patriots and Union Dugger.