The Elder golf team is coming off two of the best seasons in program history.  The last two years, the Panthers have broken 18 course record and 12 individual records.  Unfortunately, the team was never able to qualify for the State tournament in Columbus.  The team will also graduate six seniors off last year’s team, so a lot of new faces will be taking over Elder Golf.

This year’s Varsity A team will look very different after graduating Jack Wertz (state qualifier) 2016, Jack Baker, Lucas Palicki and Even DiSanto (Wittenburg Commit).  This group of seniors from last year’s team were able to get Elder first GCL quad win in six years and also break the team scoring record at their home course, Western Hills Country Club.

The only returning Varsity A player will be sophomore Victor Caliguri who finished on the GCL second team as just a freshman.  Gabe Stowe spent sometime on the Varsity A level as well and looks to be a full time player this year on A this year.  Gabe told me, “We won’t be as good as we were the last couple of years but we have some guys that can really play, and as long as we can make it to the District tournament, anything can happen.”

Along with Victor and Gabe, it looks like Luke Lammers, Lucas Kraft, and Ryan Brady will complete the varsity A roster.  St. X will most likely repeat to the win the GCL, while Moeller has been young for a while and looks to be pretty good this year.  Lucas Kraft told me that Elder will do battle with Moeller to finish second in the GCL.  He also told me that, “I had a down year last year, but this year we need some guys to make a jump to the next level like last year’s team had.  Hopefully I can be one of those guys.”

Head coach Matthew Robben is very optimistic about this year’s team. He said that is they find some consistency then they could achieve a lot more than what they think they can.

The good news is, the Southwest Sectional is fairly weak and Elder should have no problem advancing through the first round of postseason play, especially with it being played in their own backyard at Miami Whitewater Golf Course.  This would give Elder at least a chance to do something they haven’t done since 2011 and advance through the district tournament to the State tournament.

Unfortunately for coach Gary Rogers, the B team still looks to be a mystery as all players are shooting for those five coveted Varsity A spots.