With seven straight road matches to start the season, the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings are going to get pretty comfortable golfing away from home. But according to head coach Roger Moriarty, it shouldn't matter much. Because this team is going to be good. Very good.

"I think that they're going to be awful tough," Moriarty said. "There's a nice blend of experience there, and I can't see us losing a whole lot of matches this year."

Valley returns four starters from last year's 10-6 team. To fill the holes left by two graduated players, Moriarty will choose from a number of players that competed on the Viking junior varsity squad that went 12-4.

Senior Darren Parker is the top returning player for Valley. Following him will be senior Justin Leslie and a pair of juniors, Aaron Martin and Jake Recoui.

"I like the nucleus we have," Moriarty said. "The nice thing about those top four guys is that they have each taken their turn playing No. 1 golfer in practice, so that makes for a little competition at the top."

Speaking of competition, the battle for the final starting spot is still up in the air. Brandon Holloway, the only other senior, is battling for the spot along with juniors Ryan Reese, Alan Young, Tim Flora and Scott Cooksey.

"It depends how hard they work along the way, the hours they put in on the chipping, the putting and the short game," Moriarty said. "You drive for show and you putt for dough. It's the short game that will decide how successful we're going to be."

If this Valley team stays focused and plays up to what it is capable of, it could very well improve on last year's 10-6 record.

Manchester Squires

The Squires are 37-11, including 12-4 last year, in head coach Quinn Griffing's three years as coach at Manchester. Griffing doesn't expect much of a dropoff because of a few advantages that the Squires hold over other teams.

"I work with them a lot. That lends to it a little bit, being a golf professional. I can help these guys out, not only with their game, but mentally, sharing my experiences with them. Hopefully, they won't make those same mistakes.

Plus, the kids here at Manchester are really good kids. They're hard workers. When you're in a small community, the kids are asked to do a lot. They're asked to be a football player, they're asked to be on the basketball team, they're asked to be in golf or baseball or tennis. So these kids have to discipline themselves to do the best they can. Otherwise, their teams won't play as well, and everybody likes to win."

Filling the No. 1 slot for Manchester will be senior Andy Parker. He went to regionals last year. Also anchoring the squad, and battling Parker for the No. 1 spot, will be junior Ben Vineyard.

Senior Neal Scott and junior Scot Croner will play in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots. Freshman Anthony Ritenour will play the fifth spot in the first two meets based on the practice qualifier. Also trying to move into the starting lineup will be junior Chris Williams and freshman Mitch Purdy.

"Everybody would have to play perfect golf to advance in the sectionals," Griffing said. "On paper, we don't look like a team that could do that, but who knows?"

Even though the Squires may not get through sectional competition, they will be as strong as ever and continue the winning tradition under Griffing.

Triton Trojans

The Triton Trojans are looking to the future in golf. Under second-year coach Jack Carpenter, the Trojans have begun a junior high program that should begin to pay dividends in three or four years. They have a strong core group of junior high golfers already that Carpenter is excited to see at the high school level.

But for now, the Triton golf team will boast three solid golfers, and a couple of guys that will try to keep the team close.

Derek Workman, Andy Westafer and Mark Feldman return from last season's 10-8 team to fill the top three spots.

"The key is if my one, two and three guys can shoot a 43 or below," Carpenter said. "Because they are going to have to carry my four and five spots for me. Workman brings us senior leadership, and we look to him for that. Westafer wants to be a golfer. His future is as a club professional and that's what he really wants to do. I think more than anyone on the team, he desires to be a good player. He's one player who could carry us if he gets all the phases of the game together.

"Feldman is a kid who plays a lot. He and Andy are pretty good buddies. They are members at Rozella, so they play together a lot."

Freshman Scott Neal will play the four or five spot for the Trojans and could get valuable experience.

"The competition could be a little mentally tough for him at the beginning," Carpenter said. "He's got a nice swing and he's played in some junior events."

Derric Kauffman will battle for the last starting spot. Another player, sophomore Adam Heckaman, has shown marked improvement and could vie for a spot in the future.

Although the Triton Trojans are anxiously awaiting the future, they have a number of solid players this year who could help the team surprise some opponents.

Warsaw

The Tigers lost two important players due to graduation, Isiah Knouff and Ben Yeager. Knouf played the number one spot on last season's conference and sectional championship 15-5 team. This team will not be as deep, but has very talented players at the top.

"This is somewhat of a rebuilding year," head coach Bob Turner said. "We've got three good players to play that one, two, and three spot. After that, I've probably got four or five players for those two remaining varsity positions."

Kevin Powell will play the number one spot. He went to the state finals last year, and will be playing on a touring team in Scotland this summer. Senior Kevin Aust fills the number two hole, and Ben Barkey, who coach Turner considers the leader among the team, will play number three.

After that, a number of golfers will try to jump into the starting lineup. Matt Teevan, Chris Osbeck, Scott Davison, and Ryan Schlotterbach will battle for the final two spots.

"I have excellent young men as far as work ethic," coach Turner said. "It's just which of those four or five people will be able to step it up and put the score in. We'll just see what happens when June comes around."

Whitko

Whitko returns three of five starters from last year's 5-8 team, but much like Triton, are looking ahead to the future. The Wildcats have 17 players on their golf team, 12 of which are freshman and sophomores. The future looks bright in Whitley County.

"Overall, we lost a lot of tough matches last year," head coach Bryan Sprunger said. "The bottom line is, we're going to be carrying some younger kids. For them to step in there and fill in on a consistent basis will be difficult to do. If we can get some consistency out of them, we can be as good as, if not better than, last year."

Junior Eli Butterbaugh will play the number spot for Whitko. He qualified for regionals last year. Junior Jon Nixon and senior Nathan Wilson will fill the number two and three spots. Then it gets sticky.

Freshmen Rob Wright and Shane Henderson are battling for the last two spots. Bradley Sprunger is also in the hunt. They all have junior varsity experience from last year.

"It's pretty tough to sort all that out," Sprunger said. "We have kids who are capable of playing and being competitive. You don't know how people are going to handle competition, though. It's pretty easy to go out there and play with your friends. It's a little different when you're playing against competition."

Expect Whitko to improve on that 5-8 record. And with just one senior, expect the Wildcats to continue to improve in the very near future.

Wawasee

The Warriors return four starters from last year's team that went 5-10, and all five of last year's starters in the sectional. Improvement should be seen this year, and again next year as Wawasee looks to three juniors and a sophomore.

"We really had a rebuilding year last year," head coach Don Deck said. "I played a lot of young players at the varsity level. Consequently, our season was not that strong."

Wawasee returns just one senior, Pat McCauley. He is the captain and will be looked to for leadership.

Three juniors will be major contributors. Travis Coy went to regionals last year as an individual. John Hulley was last year's team MVP and had the low stroke average. Josh Cole also saw time last year at the varsity level and should make an impact this season.

Scott White should make a contribution as a sophomore. He has grown six inches since last year and has a nice swing.

"The NLC is a tough conference," coach Deck said. "We were 1-6 in the conference last year. Concord is preseason ranked number 13 in the state, I understand. Warsaw is always very difficult. Northwood is always tough. I hope we fit in there somewhere."

The Warriors will continue to improve this year, and look forward to grooming this team for next year as they will return four starters again. [[In-content Ad]]