The first sport to open the new athletic season for area high schools is girls golf.

Practices began last week and now the matches are upon us, even two weeks before most schools open their doors.

Here is a preview and capsules of five of the six area girls golf teams.

Warsaw

The Tigers have the most girls out to play golf in head coach Bob Turner's nine years. The depth will do nothing but help a young Warsaw team this year.

"We're extremely young and inexperienced," Turner said. "But we have a lot of enthusiasm and it looks like we're going to have some players who can play the game. Hopefully, by the end of the season, we'll be in a position to get out of the sectional."

Julie Arnold, Amy Landis and Tricia Suchecki all graduated from last year's 12-5 squad. Coach Turner has 10 new players on the team.

Senior Brooke Westover, junior Ashley Cooper and sophomore April Turner are the only returning members from last year's team. Among the new players attempting to grab one of the two remaining starting spots is one junior, Leslie Daniels, one sophomore, Kacy Jones, and a number of freshmen.

The freshmen include Stephanie Wilson, Jaci Thallemer, Erin Owens, Kerri Wrobel, Lara Reed and Kelly Leek.

"Our number one goal is to be better at the end of the season than at the beginning of the season," Turner said. "We'd like to have a winning season, place well in the conference and place well in the sectional. But our main thing is to be better eight weeks from today than we are right now."

Tippecanoe Valley

Tippecanoe Valley will look towards youth to improve on last year's 10-8 record. The Vikings lost two players to graduation, Kelly Montelongo and Kara Tucker, but will fill the gaps with mostly sophomores.

"We're going to be awfully young," head coach Roger Moriarty said. "We've lost a little depth this year. A lot of it will depend on how well those girls did over the summer and how much they got out and played."

Junior Brenda Rose will play the No. 1 spot for coach Roger Moriarty. She averaged a 45 over nine holes during the last half of the season her sophomore year.

"This is her second year out and she played number two on the team last year," Moriarty said. "Frankly, she did a real good job. She's a real competitive athlete."

Sophomores Mary Gast and Ginger Ervin will be counted on to play among the top four, along with Wendy Tilden. The fifth spot will be battled for by Erica Pontious, Terra Weaver, Mandy

Barber, Mandy Rock and Josie Caudill.

"Our first goal is to have a winning season," Moriarty said. "Our second goal is to get out of the sectional as a team if we can or at least an individual. I expect Brenda Rose to at least do that this year."

Coach Moriarty expects his team to be slightly better than last year.

"We ended up averaging 219 as a team last year. You've got to be around 200 to be competitive anymore, and I think we'll be there this year. It just depends how well those kids come along."

Wawasee

The Warriors were hit hard by the loss of players, but not necessarily because of graduation.

Carly Beer, last year's No. 4 golfer, was the only graduate. However, last year's No. 3 golfer, Jennifer Light moved and Megan King, who played No. 5 last year, has switched to soccer.

The team will be quite inexperienced, but will be strong at the top. Two-time all-NLC performer Kari Wortinger is back to play the No. 1 spot. The senior golfer has advanced to the regional tournament twice previously. Junior Julia Wolfe will return to play the No. 2 slot and Stephanie Wihebrink will begin the season at the No. 3 position.

After that, head coach Bill Lantz will fill out his starting line-up from a group of players. Emily Robertson, Megan Bell, Ashley Ward, Laura Reel, Kelly Drake and Sandy Drake will round out the team and battle for the final two slots.

"We have to try to get better individually," coach Lantz said. "I don't think we can worry about beating other teams and things like that at this point. We're very strong at the top, but it becomes very inexperienced very quickly. My goal is going to be to work to try to get those freshmen improved so that they are able to feel comfortable playing in competitive situations."

NorthWood

The Panthers lost only one senior, Cassi Middaugh, from last year's 6-6 team. The five starters all competed on the varsity team last year, so experience should be a key to head coach Jay Taylor's team.

Michelle Taylor, Mandy Gerber, Sarah Anderson, Jill VanBruaene and Lindsey Detwiler should all start this year. Cory Neff, Megan Sloat and Kristen Stichter will fill in when needed.

"We have some promising underclassmen that played quite a bit over the summer," coach Taylor said. "I think they worked on their swings quite a bit."

With the improvement that each player made, along with solid talent among the starting five, NorthWood looks toward a record above .500 this year.

"We're as balanced as any team in our conference. We're just looking for steady improvement all year long."

Manchester

The Squires took a hard hit in losses from last year, but expectations still run high for this season. Heidi Wieland, who played No. 1 or No. 2 last year, graduated. Manchester also lost two juniors from last year's team, Tasha Cox and Becky Marcum.

"We're a little less experienced this year," head coach Jody Shewman said. "We're kind of young, but four of our starters have had some varsity experience."

However, the returning players should be quite solid also. Freshman Dorey Bungitak is the most notable addition to the team. The freshman is slated to play in the No. 2 slot. Katie Parker will return for her senior year in the No. 1 position. Jodee Ruppel, the only other senior, will play No. 5. Kasha Wieland and DeMara Knight should also start.

Backing up those five will be Alexis Leininger, Lindsay Hix and Christina Evans.

"Our biggest goal is to shoot under 200," Shewman said. "Our best ever is 202. Also, last year we won eight matches, so this year, we would like to win nine." [[In-content Ad]]