“Our top strength will be our experience,” said women’s golf coach Kathy Hobson as she looks ahead to the upcoming golf season. There are five returning golfers from last year’s team, senior Reagan Leonard, junior Lexi Noelck, junior Abby Smith, sophomore Abby Muller, and sophomore Belle Berg. In addition, freshman Nissa Molgaard learned the game. All returners have varsity experience and have played against some solid competition.

There are six tournaments scheduled prior to regionals at the end of the season. Most tournaments are nine-hole meets. The other is eighteen holes. “Creston and Shenandoah have the most returning players, but generally, the Hawkeye 10 is very competitive. Tournaments in the Des Moines area against 4A schools give us our toughest challenges” said Hobson.

“I am excited to build on what we had started last season and the team improving as a whole,” said Abby Smith.

On the boy’s side, Coach Ed Den Beste said, “Kuemper will be the toughest competition this season. We always battle back and forth with them, and they normally have a solid team. Seeing teams like Carroll, ADM, and Spencer from different conferences will also be good for the team.”

There are three seniors on the team this year: Garrett McLaren, Lane Nelson, and Cooper Jipsen. In addition to the seniors, there is junior Cruz Weaver, sophomore Chris Keegan, sophomore Roth Den Beste, sophomore Tate Niklasen, sophomore Colton Becker, sophomore Mikal Buskirk, freshman Tristan Hayes, freshman Trevan Hansen, and freshman Cade Smith.

The boys’ season will include six junior varsity/varsity tournaments and six varsity tournaments. “Our strengths for the golf team will be having guys that have varsity experience and they have worked on improving their scores from last year,” said Den Beste. Another big thing for the team is they have a lot of experience with all the conference courses.

“I am most excited for growing as a team and having a great time with the boys on the course,” said Chris Keegan.