The start of the 2010 high school fall sports season is here!
First up in the State of Colorado, is boys golf, which began practice on Monday. They are the first of 21 sanctioned sports, nine during the fall season under the Colorado High School Athletic Association (CHSAA).
With only a few days of practice, the Lamar High School Savages golf team is set to tee off the season in earnest. The Savages varsity team will compete at the Pueblo West Invitational today (Friday, Aug. 13) while the junior varsity team will compete at the Fowler Invitational.
On Monday, August 16, the Savages will host their annual Lamar Invitational starting at 9 a.m. at Spreading Antlers Golf Course.
Bob Heist heads into his third year as the head coach for the Lamar golf team and will be assisted by Billy Dowen.
“Another year is here and the summer went too fast,” said Heist. “But I`m looking forward to the season.”
Heist has 16 prospects out for this year`s team and the roster includes five seniors, six juniors, four sophomores, and one freshman.
Seniors on the team include Jorge Morales, Josh Dowen, Coy Mahanay, Tanner Hasser, and Joe Perales.
Morales and Dowen both played on the varsity team while Mahanay, Hasser, and Perales are all new to the program.
Juniors include Austin Peck, Chandler Hill, Thomas Fierro, Jacob Reed, Ratna Malkan, and Erin O`Neill. Peck, Hill, and Fierro were all letter winners for the Savages last year.
Sophomores include Chris Flippins, Sam Hourich, Kaleb Owens and Andrew Becker, who played soccer last year.
The lone freshman on the team is Holly Pennington.
Looking at this year`s team, Heist said he lost the services of his top two players from last year to graduation. So, there will be some holes to fill.
“We have some holes to fill,” said Heist. “We lost two good seniors in Greg Fierro and Brent Bates, who were both were state qualifiers at one time or another. But we have five returning lettermen and hopefully between those five we can find four that can play. We have a couple of new kids in. One is Chris Flippen from Denver and the other one is Coy Mahanay from Texas. I don`t know how much they have played but I think they have some potential. Maybe they can fill some spots for us.”
“We have a lot of kids who have played a little and some who haven`t played,” Heist continued. “They`re a little green and you can see that when they are on the course. Hopefully, we can get them going in the right direction.”
The Lamar coach said that Morales and Dowen qualified as the No. 1 and No. 2 players on the varsity team, but said he`s still looking at several of the other players to fill the No. 3 and No. 4 spots on varsity.
“Jorge had an up and down season a year ago and I think he came within one stroke of qualifying for state,” said Heist. “If he can get more consistent, he`ll be fine.”
“Josh was our No. 4 player last year,” explained Heist. “He also was up and down. But I expect him to contribute more this year.”Looking at the Lamar Invitational on Monday, Heist said defending tournament champion Burlington won`t be back to defend their team title as well as the individual medalist.
Canon City and Florence, who have been regular participants in the Lamar tournament, are not coming this year. Heist also noted that La Junta High School has dropped their golf program.
Teams coming to Lamar for the tournament this year will be Pueblo East, Pueblo West, Pueblo County, Las Animas, Fowler, Trinidad, Rocky Ford, Eads, Swink, and of course Lamar.
Asked about the course at Spreading Antlers, Heist said, “The course is in great shape. The greens are coming around and I know they had some trouble with them earlier in the summer. But they look good now.”
Heist added that he has a great group of parents who help out with the Lamar tournament and wanted to shout out a thanks to them.
Following the Lamar Invitational, the Savages` varsity teams heads to Trinidad on Monday, August 23.
Speaking of Trinidad, Heist said that`s the team to beat in the Tri-Peaks League.
“Trinidad is going to be tough to beat,” he said. “At the end of the season last year, Trinidad was playing two sophomores and two freshmen on their varsity. Then went on to finish fifth in the 3A state meet. Rye has three kids coming back who were state qualifiers. I expect a pretty good battle between Trinidad and Rye. After that I think it`s pretty wide open.”
