Compiled By Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

The high school boys and girls golf season began earlier this month at schools across the state.West Valley Preps and the Peoria Independent asked local high school coaches about their teams. Here are their responses.

Cactus Cobras

Boys Coach: Chad Higuera (first year)

Girls Coach: Julie Mohn (third year)

Region: Division II Section VI

Who are your top returning players (girls)? Top returning golfers are Senior Isabella Armstrong and Junior Haleigh Silhacek. They were my No. 1 and No. 2 golfers from last year.

Who are some newcomers that may have an impact this year (girls)? I’m very excited about my freshmen golfers. They will definitely make an impact on our team.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season (girls)? Best attribute is being to help each other out. The experienced golfers are willing to take the new members under their wings.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team (girls)? Our goal is to improve our scores from match to match.

Centennial Coyotes

Boys Coach: Eric Schwandt (first year)

Girls Coach: Taylor Nowlin (first year)

Region: Division II Section VI

Who are your top returning players (girls)? Jayden Gawronski and Jetta Jasinek are two of our top returning golfers that I think are going to do good things this year.

Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year (girls)? We only have one girl that is new this year, Katherine Miskimen is our freshman that will do very well for the Lady Coyotes. She knows the game very well and is one of our top five girls.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season (girls)? When they are having fun and keep the negative thoughts out of their head they seem to do much better.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team (girls)? Our goal every match is to do better than the one before. Golf is a tricky game and can get in your head, I try to have the girl focus on not thinking so much and have fun. This is my very first year coaching golf, ever, and so far I am really enjoying it. I am looking forward to learning more everyday and having a great season.

Deer Valley Skyhawks

Boys Coach: Allen Ferguson (fifth year)

Girls Coach: Greg Rice (2nd year at Deer Valley and 14th year overall coaching girl’s golf)

Region: Division II Section VI

Who are your top returning golfers? Sophomore Colton Hale. Girls top returning golfer is senior, Mayumi Murphy and junior, Amanda Willis.

Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Senior Joshua Erickson. Girls top newcomer is freshman Kirsten Franks.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Young and eager to learn. The girls have a young team that is a group of hard workers that want to get better every day. We are looking to build the team with freshman that can contribute to our team success in the coming years.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Building for the future. The girls goal this year is to qualify our top two golfers to the state tournament.

Dysart Demons

Boys Coach: Thomas Vesey (fifth year)

Girls Coach: Dustin Borst (second year)

Region: Division II Section III

Who are your top returning golfers? Boys: I have four returners with one senior. Arthur Carter is a great kid, a real leader. Vincent Torres will probably play number two. He has a lot of potential. Girls: We have three returners from last years team - Andrea Arroyo Sr., Emily Heinzerling Sr. and Samantha Trantham Sr. These three were big in matches last year as we took four first place, two second place and a fourth in the district meet.

Who are some newcomers that may have an impact this year? Boys: All my newcomers are beginners so we are very young and raw. Girls: We will have two new Freshman in Alyssa Blandford and Alaina Heinzerling.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Boys: Their best attribute is they want to learn. Girls: Our best attribute is that we have three seniors with a bunch of match experience.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Boys: Team goals are to get better individually and as a team and have fun playing a game that you can play your whole life. Girls: Our primary team and individual goal is to continue to improve and get better every match. We want to be at our best at the end of the season and make an impact in the Dysart District tournament.

Top three finishers in the Girls Championship Division at the PING Invitational pose July 24 after the tournament. They are, from left: first place Mattison Frick of Peoria, Maya Benita and Madeleine Laux.

Liberty Lions

Boys Coach: Ron Anderson (12th year)

Girls Coach: Eric Brenton (fifth year)

Region: Division I Desert Valley

Who are your top returning players? Girls: Sophomore Mattison Frick was third at state, Jenna Lee, Josie Synder, Alexis Hew, Lauran Welsh. Boys: Seniors Kobe Valociek, Darren Ulivarri and Nate Burt all competed at state last year. Kobe Valociek had a great summer winning the Ping Invitational in July and placing 5th overall in the AJGA Allison Lee Championships in California.

Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Girls: Freshmen Brooke McGlasson and Annika Saida, but great young players with years of experience. Boys: Freshman Tyler Linam and Dylan Kohner are expected to make significant contributions this year. And Sophomores Evan Averyt and Evan Woolery both improved their games over the summer.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Girls: We have 3 underclassman who can shoot low and have years of experience including JGAA tournament wins and POY honors. We have 5 years who will be competing for starting spots every week and the competition will elevate everyone’s game including the young girls. Boys: Depth. We have a great mix of veteran talent and some young and up and coming talent.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Girls: Team goal is win district, be in the hunt to win sectionals, qualify as a team and place top three in state. Individually, each girl wants to qualify individually state if not as a team. Mattison Frick has the ability to win state after placing third as a freshman. Brooke McGlasson certainly can be right there. Our top five which will change from week to week want to win district tournament and earn region honors at the end of the year. Boys: Our first goal is to three-peat as PUSD district champions. Then we would like to defend the other two tournaments we won last year. Finally we are a “state or bust” team this year. And our goal at state is finish in the top half of the draw.

Millennium Tigers

Boys Coach: James Lotts

Girls Coach: Vicki Turrell (10th year)

Region: Boys: Division I Southwest Girls: Division II Section III

Who are your top returning players (girls)? Seniors Maddie Laux and MiKayla Sgrillo. Besides them Raya Schulz, a sophomore.

Who are some newcomers that may have an impact this year (girls)? Izzy Junio, a freshman.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season (girls)? Togetherness: we really focus on creating a team atmosphere.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team (girls)? Team goal is to come together as a team. Strong players assist inexperience players to improve their skills as well. Goal as a coach: to drive home the concept ‘golf is what you do, it is not who you are’.  My job is to assist the parents in developing mature, responsible young ladies.

Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions

Boys Coach: Jeff Williams (fifth year as head coach)

Girls Coach: Division I Desert Valley

Region: Division I Desert Valley

Who are your top returning golfers? Boys: Garrett Olson, Tanner Olson, Mason Schaffer, Max Ngov, Caleb McBee, Seth Vaswani. Girls: Senior Lauren Gurney and junior Jacie Warfield. Both are former state tournament qualifiers. Senior Hannah Reddington was injured for most of the season last year but looks to make a big contribution this year.

Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Boys: We have a great group of freshmen and sophomores to help us build for the future. Girls: Our newcomers are led by freshman Allie Sullivan and sophomore Jordan Ransdell. Freshman’s Sydney Cupisz and Audrey Ramirez also look to play a factor in our success.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Young and eager to learn. Boys: We had a lot of our guys play in competitive tournaments this past summer. Girls: I would say so far the team’s chemistry looks like the best part so far. The seniors have done a great job of welcoming the younger players to the team

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Boys: Work hard and keep improving. Girls: Our primary goals is for everyone to love the experience and see if we can make a run at the state tournament.

Shadow Ridge Stallions

Boys Coach: Scott Lihs (fourth year)

Girls Coach: Robert Bohon (fourth year)

Region: Division I Southwest

Who are your top returning golfers? Boys: Top returners are senior Xavier Flores and junior Gavin Lepinski.

Who are some newcomers that may have an impact this year? Boys: Newcomers who might impact the team are freshman Andrew Chayrez and Dillon Mosher

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Boys: A love of the game the kids have worked hard and played a lot because they really enjoy the game of golf.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Boys: The last two years we have had 2 individuals miss the state tournament by a fraction and last year our team missed it by less than two strokes, so our goal with our new freshman and some juniors stepping up is to send the team to the state tournament.

Sunrise Mountain Mustangs

Boys Coach: Nick Rizer (22nd year)

Girls Coach: Shane Crosley (fourth year)

Region: Boys: Division I Northwest Girls: Division II Section V

Ben Lorenz

Who are your top returning players? Girls: We have three returners that all have experience in matches. Kendal Guterriez (senior), Morgan Keller (Junior), and Carlee Wooldridge (Junior). Kendal shot one over par 37 at the first match (personal best). Morgan also shot a personal best 40. Boys: Division I state champion and University of Oklahoma commit Ben Lorenz is back for his senior season.

Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? The rest of the team is pretty new and inexperienced. But we should see some improvement from all.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? We have three veterans that have quite a bit of match experience.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? I am the new coach at Sunrise Mountain High School, but I am a PGA teaching professional with almost 30 year experience teaching and coaching. The team made it to state last year, but was one of the last teams into the tournament. We are hoping to improve upon that and hopefully better results in the state tournament. We are also hoping to be one of the top teams in the Peoria Unfied School District tournament.

Valley Vista Monsoon

Boys Coach: Rick Scaife (third year)

Girls Coach: Steve Trezzo (fifth year)

Region: Division I Southwest

Who are your top returning golfers? Boys: Junior Jacob Shaff and Paul Brower. Girls: Megan Eaton is a 10th grader, who has shown exciting development in just one year of playing.

Who are some newcomers that may have an impact this year? Matthew White a transfer student. Girls: All are brand new to golf this year.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Boys: They all get along really well together and eat golf for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They actively work toward getting better. Girls: It is a team of character and academics first. We have been utilizing a Character Matters curriculum developed by Wade Salem for all five years which has boosted performance in the classroom, on the greens and especially in our ultimate aim of molding responsible citizens.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Boys: Team goals would be to compete more and win more team matches overall than last year. Individually, we would be to have one or two boys make the state tournament this year. Girls: Been a hotter than normal start to the season. Sometimes it feels like if we could get through the season still smiling that is quite a feat. In regards to goals as a team, we want to get the high GPA AIA Academic designation this year. In regards to play on the fairways we are hoping to see measurable growth in each athlete as nearly all have never played before or are in their second year. The No. 1 goal besides safety, is having fun and enjoying the sport that you can play your whole life.

Willow Canyon Wildcats

Boys Coach: Nick Manganiello (first year)

Girls Coach: Jason Stutenroth (fifth year)

Region: Division II Section VI

Who are your top returning golfers? Girls: Sophomore Madison Kerr - played in the state tournament last year as a freshman. Princess Dancel - Great improvement from last season.

Who are some of the newcomers that may have an impact this year? Girls: Senior Sanaa Butler was injured last year and didn’t play. She played as a sophomore and greatly improved that year. Breanne Geiser is a junior, playing her first season of competitive golf. Has shown great improvement over the last month.

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Girls: I would say their competitive nature. Once they get on the course, they compete against the other schools very well. Their dedicated to improving each and everyday, and doing their best on the course.

What are the primary goals for this year’s team? Girls: Our team goal is to win the Dysart District Cup. We tied with Valley Vista last year, and we want to win it this year. Individually for each player to improve over the course of the year. Right now we are just getting used to being on the course, keeping track of other players scores, and trying to navigate the course. The last half of the season we will focus more on better scoring and better overall results individually. Another individual goal is for Madison Kerr to qualify for the state tournament. This will be a goal for her all four years of high school. She has dedicated herself during the off-season to improving her shot selection, yardage control, and overall course management. I would say for her to be in the top 25-50 at the state tournament this season is very much in her sights.