By Liesl Roorda and Randy Masterson
MHS golf coaches
2023 was a history-making year for Montezuma Golf and we look to continue to have great success in this new season.
On the boys side, we lost half of our state tournament team, but on the bright side, we have half the team back. Leading the way are seniors Cruz De Jong and Jack Erselius, who were instrumental in last year’s success and have worked hard in the off-season to shoot low scores.
Also returning is junior Max Anderson who had very solid meets and brought in low scores consistently last year.
Sophomore Brady Boulton returns with some great experiences from last year’s tournament trail also and looks to also be a competitive contributor.
We look to continue the great success these four have had and build on that with the addition of freshman Dane Strong, sophomore Carson Van Der Hart, and junior Lars Taylor.
We will work hard to compete and our goal is to make a run at the state title again.
Our girls numbers are up and we look to coach this group of inexperienced players to be very competitive!
Joining the golf team for the first time is senior Izzy Roorda, juniors Karlee Knust, Kylee Larmore, and Shiressa Wetering, along with sophomore Claire Erselius.
Karlee has seen competitive play at her previous school and Izzy and Claire have golfed with their families and are ready to make the jump to competitive golf.
As an added bonus, we have 8th grader Addi Ver Meer working with us at practices to prepare for her high school seasons in the years ahead.
We are excited about the upcoming season and expect great success in both our boys and girl squads!
Our first home co-ed meet is approaching quickly on Monday, March 25 at 4:15 at Montezuma Country Club.
This year we have a significant change in the meet schedule. The conference decided to separate most girls and boys meets so boys will golf on Mondays and girls on Thursdays and have at least 3-4 teams competing at each meet.
This will allow for teams to compete in other meets outside of the conference to gain valuable experience on different and tougher courses, along with against other high caliber competition.
We are looking forward to this season to see much growth in skill and confidence. It looks to be an exciting year for Montezuma Golf!
