PENDLETON — Pendleton Heights girls golf coach Hilary Slick knows what her team is facing this season. The potential exists for her to have only four golfers playing in matches, and she lacks the personnel to replace three seniors who graduated from last year’s regional- qualifying team.
She knows this season is less about winning team matches than it is about individual improvement.
“It is definitely about improving from Day 1,” Slick said. “I don’t expect to win county, and I definitely don’t expect to move on to regional. As a team, I don’t think our scores will be good enough. Unless other teams lost as much of their team as we did, I don’t see us winning many matches.”
The Arabians have two talented and experienced players at the top of their roster in senior Kiersten Maxwell and sophomore Danielle Tinsley, both of whom played in the regional last year. Maxwell has been working this summer and has not spent as much time on the golf course as she would like. Slick feels her senior will be ready to show off her power game and lead the team as the season gets under way.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“She seems to be ready for it,” Slick said. “I think she’s keeping a cool head, and she’ll be fine. The girl can hit the ball a mile off the tee. I don’t know that she’ll be my No. 1; Danielle has been playing more this summer. She’s trying to get back in the groove now.”
Tinsley, on the other hand, has been busy playing in junior tournaments this summer, including several 18-hole tournaments. Slick has liked what she’s seen from the sophomore.
“She’s turned in a couple (scores) in the 80s; it’s been really nice to see that,” Slick said. “She’s gotten a lot more consistent from last year with her drives being more straight. And she has a lot more self- confidence. She’s expecting more out of herself now.”
Junior Courtney Dawson is questionable at the outset of the season with a knee injury. But if she is able to play, she will likely compete with fellow junior Haley Brown, who played for the first time last year, for the No. 3 and No. 4 spots on the team.
“I think Haley needs a little more confidence,” Slick said. “If she has two or three bad shots in a row, she tends to get more frustrated than she needs to. That’s what I look for her to improve on this year, being able to let that bad shot go.”
The fifth player on the roster is freshman Ryann Norris, who is playing for the first time during the week leading up to the opening of the season.
Slick says 2017 will be something of a rebuilding year as her young players learn and improve, but she’s not without goals for individual achievement.
“Kiersten and Danielle are the most likely to have a chance to advance,” she said of the postseason. “I just want them to go out there and do their best; that’s all I ask of them. Do your best, try to do better than you did last time.”
The Arabians’ season got under way Monday with a tournament in Plainfield. They defeated Mt. Vernon Tuesday.
