The City High boys golf team ended their season at Districts, without an answer to West High, but with an unanticipated response to Jefferson.
According to the Iowa High School Golf Coaches Association, City High ranked 29th out of 40 teams, and according to Quickstats, which takes into account all of the teams in class 4A, City High ranked 25th or 26th out of 50 teams.
The team placed 10th out of 13 teams at districts, making the team ineligible for state, but ahead of Jefferson by two strokes, who had placed ahead of City all season. The team was eight strokes behind West High.
Yet Head City High Boys Golf coach Jerry Hora believes there are more important aspects to the game than rankings.
“We always set goals to try to, not necessarily compete against a team, but to establish what we think our individual scores should be, and what our team score should be,” Hora said.
These goals were set at the beginning of the season, and some were realized with time.
“To start off, we weren’t that great,” Co-captain Braxton Bell ’14 said. “At the beginning of the season we had low expectations, but as the season went on we noticed we could actually post some good scores and compete with most of the teams.”
There were some objectives, however, both individually and collectively that were not achieved.
“I guess I played how I had been playing, but I didn’t improve really, ” Co-captain Brady Swenning ’14 said. “I just kind of stayed the same. I wasn’t able to eliminate the mistakes that caused my problems.”
Coach Hora complies.
“I’d say they’re probably disappointed with the season as far as taking a look at what their record was and how low [score-wise] they played,” Hora said.
Regardless of the outcome of the season, Coach Hora is proud of the team.
“I like the work ethic of the boys. They came to practice every day, worked hard, and did what we asked them to do,” Hora said.
On the other hand, Hora is working with Athletic Director Mr. Coleman to install a ball hitting simulator at City High in order for the golfers to have the ability to practice year round, and with Coach Casey to construct a weightlifting program.”We’re going to try to give them more opportunities to improve themselves, and hopefully they’ll take advantage of it,” Hora said.
Bell, Swenning, and Hora all recognize the importance of practicing on the offseason as well.
“[The boys] also need to play in some competitive situations so they understand how their body is going to react when they get in competition. It’s different when you’re playing with your friends on the weekend to when you’re playing and your school name is on your shirt,” Hora said.
Despite the bogies of the season, the birdies overtook them.
“It was a fun last year,” Bell said. “It wasn’t our best year score-wise, but it was probably the most fun I’ve had.”
