By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
ALLEGAN
“New” is the operative word for Allegan this season.
“We’re in a new conference, competing against new players and coaches and playing on new golf courses,” Allegan coach Bob Loftus said. “When you add all of that together, it should be a great, exciting season.”
The Tigers are making the move from their longtime home in the Wolverine Conference to the SAC. They’ll be competing in the league’s Lakeshore Division.
“We’re really looking forward to joining the Lakeshore division of the SAC,” Loftus said. “We’ll be going back to playing jamboree this season. That will give us the opportunity to see how we measure up the rest of the division.”
The return of six letterwinners from last year’s team that finished third in the Wolverine Conference should help make the transition to the SAC a smooth one.
Seniors Brandon Katsma and Bradley Nichols join juniors Carson Williams, Jackson Morrie, Cole Muenzer and Logan Locatis to make up the returning contingent.
“We return a lot of experience and have some solid new additions,” Loftus said.
Two of the retuning players garnered All-Conference honors a season ago.
“We have high expectations for our returning players as well as those new players joining the team,” Loftus said.
Loftus is entering his 12th season at the helm in Allegan.
“We have been competitive in our old conference and invitationals we’ve played in,” he said. “I feel we’ll continue that trend heading into this season competing in the SAC.”
HAMILTON
The 2022 season was one to remember for Hamilton.
In addition to winning the M-89 Challenge against the other teams in Allegan County, the Hawkeyes places runner-up at the Bulldog Invitational and the Wooden Shoe Invitational to go with third-place finishes at the Hamilton Invitational and the OK Blue Championship.
And, perhaps most importantly, Hamilton took third place at a Division 2 regional match, earning the Hawkeyes a trip to the state finals.
Six players—two seniors, two juniors and two sophomores—are back from that squad, much to the delight of Hamilton coach Kyle Lurvey.
“We are excited to have much of our team that qualified for the state finals last season,” Lurvey said. “We are looking to build on that success and compete at a high level in our league as well as the region.”
The senior duo of Eli Timmerman and Gavin Baker join juniors Ben Boehm and Keaton Haverdink along with sophomores Jackson Hansen and Max Meiste as returning letterwinners.
“This is a group with some good experience, including a trip to the state finals last year,” Lurvey said. “Led by Eli Timmerman and Ben Boehm, this group is deep with good golfers who are excited to build on last season.”
Sophomore newcomer Gabe Schrotenboer also hopes to compete for a varsity slot.
All in all, it’s a group Lurvey believes should be in the hunt for the top spot in the conference standings.
“We should be competitive for the top spots in the OK Blue conference this year,” Lurvey said. “Spring Lake, Unity Christian and Holland Chrstian are strong teams returning many golfers like us, which should make for a fun year.”
HOPKINS
NorthPointe Christian and Calvin Christian have, at least in recent years, been the teams to beat in the OK Silver.
Hopkins coach William Spoelhof doesn’t anticipate that changing much this year.
“NorthPointe and Calvin are usually the top contenders and are always very tough to beat,” he said.
That being said, don’t expect the Vikings to concede anything to either of those teams—or any others—just yet.
“As always, our goal is to defeat every team we play and win the conference title,” said Spoelhof, who led his team to a fourth-place league finish last season.
Spoelhof, who enters his 14th season leading the way for Hopkins, has three returning golfers on the roster in the senior trio of Josiah Ryan, Isaac DeHaan and Wyatt Fein.
Newcomers include juniors Connor Ainsworth, Hayden Wycoff and Nolan Wood.
“We have a very positive outlook for the season,” Spoelhof said. “We are in a tough conference, but our goal is always for our players to earn All-Conference honors.”
Spoelhof likes the mixture of length off the team and precision in the short game that he’s seen to this point.
“We are going to have great distance off the tee this year,” he said. “Josiah Ryan and Connor Ainsworth can really hit the ball. And Isaac DeHaan has a great short game.
“Our focus is to stay out of trouble and keep the ball in the fairway.”
OTSEGO
A little healthy competition is always a good thing.
And there should be plenty of competition when it comes to securing one of the coveted varsity slots for Otsego this season.
That’s because Bulldogs coach Matt Rayman has 28 golfers on his roster this season. That includes eight returning golfers who saw at least some varsity action a season ago.
Needless to say, Rayman likes having so many options available to him.
“It’s been a few years of rebuilding since our six-year run of winning the conference championship and enjoying the state finals,” he said. “But this might be the team to watch to start another run.”
Returning sophomore Spencer Shearer leads the charge for Otsego after establishing himself as the team’s No. 1 golfer as a freshman.
“Spencer had a great summer of tournament golf and really should be poised for a great year,” Rayman said.
Seniors Cooper Smalldon and Carsen Miller are also expected to hold down varsity spots, as is sophomore Landon Eastman.
“Cooper had a solid junior year and should be ready to have a great senior season, while Carsen played a ton of tournament golf over the summer and has worked extremely hard to improve his game,” Rayman said. “Landon also played a ton of summer golf and is ready to play.”
The senior trio of J.J. Kruizenga, Carson Ryder and Luke Hazelhoff join sophomore Jurian Shaffer as the other returning players with varsity experience.
“I think we are eight deep currently with plenty of freshmen and sophomores challenging to break into varsity lineup,” Rayman said.
Given the level of talent on his team, Rayman thinks the Bulldogs should be among the contenders for the Wolverine Conference crown.
“The conference should be fairly competitive this year with the top four teams from last year returning key starters,” he said. “We are expected to be very competitive and finish toward the top.”
SAUGATUCK
One stroke.
That’s all that stood between Saugatuck and a second straight conference championship.
As it was, the Trailblazers had to settle for the runner-up spot last year.
But with six returning letterwinners back alongside some talented freshmen, Saugatuck coach Brian Ward believes his team is poised for a return to the top spot.
“My outlook for the year is really strong,” Ward said. “We have a lot of talent returning and our goal is to win the conference this year. We missed winning back-to-back conference championships last year by one stroke, as we lost out to Coloma.
“But I believe we have more talent coming back this year than they do. So, we are looking to rectify that this year.”
The addition of several new schools to the conference will make the race for league honors even more challenging.”
“The tough thing this year is that Bridgman, Allegan and South Haven have all been added to our conference and all three of those schools have very solid golf programs,” Ward said. “So, it will be no easy task this year.”
Ward, who his entering his seventh season as varsity coach in Saugatuck after spending three seasons as the JV coach, will rely heavily on the returning junior quarter of Russell VandePoel, Eli Janowiak, Owen Marzolf and Jacey Merkle.
Sophomores Cam Lewis and Brighton VanHorn also return.
“We have a lot of talent coming back,” Ward said. “Eli Janowiak qualified for the state finals last year as an individual and he will look to lead us again this year in scoring.
“My only area of concern is having a consistent fourth scorer. We have a lot of players who can shoot well, but we are lacking some consistency from time to time.”
Freshmen Noah Conklin and Maggie Loomis are the top newcomers for a team that won two league jamborees last season in addition to taking second in two and taking third once.
“In addition to our goals for conference, our other team goal is to be a top three team at regionals and earn a berth to the state playoffs,” Ward said.
NOTE: No preview information was received from Plainwell or Wayland prior to deadline.