Friday, October 22, 1999
Overachieving Summit golfers reach for top
BY DAVE SCHUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Instead of making excuses during the preseason, Summit Country Day boys golf coach Bob Juenke took a wait-and-see attitude.
“I didn't know what to expect,” Juenke said. “This group has kind of surprised me. I'd say they're a year ahead of schedule.”
A Division III state qualifiers last year, Summit lost its top three golfers, returning only Topfer Sheldon, Mike Bernard and Wes Homan. The remainder of the team consisted of untested sophomores and a freshman.
Yet, it not only won the Miami Valley Conference title but also the Division III sectional and district championships the past two weeks.
As a result, Summit goes after the state championship today and Saturday over the par 72 Gray Course at Ohio State University's Golf Center.
“The first day is the most important,” Sheldon said. “I was nervous and played poorly last year. We can't allow ourselves to get overwhelmed. We need to put it out of our head and play the course.”
Early on, Sheldon had doubts about this team.
“We began the season playing well and the new guys immediately starting believing in themselves,” Sheldon said. “It wasn't anything that the returning players did. It was like they picked themselves up.”
Though the team started winning, Juenke still wasn't convinced they were for real until winning the MVC title.
“The league plays four tournaments to decide the championship,” Juenke said. “We won three of the four which was more than enough to win it.”
Homan, a sophomore, has the lowest average at 39 strokes per nine holes followed by Sheldon at 40 and senior Mike Barnard at 43. Freshman Pat Cruz averages 44 and sophomore Eric Ragland 45.
Lakota West, the No.1 team in the Enquirer's Division I poll, is Cincinnati's lone team representative in the big school tournament on the Scarlet Course.
When junior Roddy Stieger transferred from Fairfield to Lakota West in August, Firebird coach Jack Buhi's outlook for the 1999 season changed from cautious to confident.
Stieger was one of Fairfield's best players the past two seasons and gave Buhi the missing link needed to boost a team that lacked a solid fourth player.
Lakota West went on to win the Greater Miami Conference championship before claiming the Dick Hadley Memorial Tournament the final week of the season.
Kevin Hall, a senior at St. Rita School for the Deaf, will represent Winton Woods as an individual. His goal is medalist honors, won last year by Neil Lykins from Moeller.
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