“Golf is the low score kid; we’re not playing basketball,” chirped Assistant Coach Anthony Cannole to student golfers at Jefferson High golf practice April 8, which is held behind the school in an open field. High spirits and low scores are a theme this season, as the boys team prepares to win their second state championship in three years and the girls to top last year’s second place finish in the state tournament.
All five varsity members of the boys team return this season, led by senior Colin Field, who will be golfing next year at the Oregon Institute of Technology. He is joined by fellow seniors Keyan Coate and Marcus Lee, who have yet to determine if they’ll be playing college golf next year, and juniors Tyson Lee and Ben Werner.
Last year, the boys team dominated the regular season, won division, and then came up short in the state tournament. They finished second to Anaconda by three strokes: Werner shooting 158, Lee 162, and Field 165.
“We have the best team chemistry in the state,” said Marcus Lee. “Last year, we thought the championship would be light work. We were wrong. That’s not going to happen this year.”
“I let the pressure get to me,” said Tyson Lee. “After winning state freshman year, I assumed we’d be right back at it again. I didn’t recover like I needed to, and let bad holes run to worse ones. But not this year.”
The girls varsity retains juniors Maryah Lindsay and Shae Jones-Moore, as well as sophomore Eryn Lindsay. Celi Chapman, who finished second at state last year and critical to the teams overall success, has graduated. Two freshmen round out the varsity roster, and make up the five girls total playing golf for JHS this season. There are 13 golfers on the boys team, giving them significantly more adaptability as the season progresses.
“We’re a good team, we just need to get everyone on the same page,” said Jones-Moore. “We’re focusing on one tournament at a time.”
The JHS golf team is well into its spring season, as it prepares for eight upcoming meets leading up to the divisional tournament in early May. The top four teams there, and the top 15 individual golfers, will advance to the state tournament.
JHS head coach Anna Demars is proud of her team’s success, if not humorously bemused by some of the realities behind fielding golf teams in Montana. “It’s funny that we win state championships but practice on a football field,” said JHS golf head coach Anna DeMars. DeMars herself played college golf at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, and is in her fifth season as head coach at JHS. Cannole is in his fourth season coaching golf, and has also previously coached JHS basketball.
“They’ve got a chip on their shoulder; we’ll see what they do with it,” said Cannole.
