Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The 2018 Kimball High Girl's Golf Team are all smiles as the posed for an Observer photo. Let to right are Maddie Cook, Raven Johnson, Lacey Klinkhammer, Sam Bemis, Payton Wise, Carli Wurdeman and Sheridan Magninie.
There is an all new look, and a new attitude, for the Kimball High girl's golf team this season, including a new coach as Luke Maas takes over the position of head coach. Coach Maas has seven girls on his squad, including two returning letter winners in sophomore Maddie Cook and Raven Johnson. As freshman players last year, they both had limited success, but could show a lot of improvement this season with some hard work at practice.
The most individual success will most likely come from freshman Payton Wise who has the most golf experience of anyone on the team. Payton, the daughter of Four Winds Pro Chad Wise, has played a lot of junior golf and has participated in many junior golf tournaments and contests and was a steady performer in the Panhandle Junior Golf Tour the past season as well. With a very early start to the current Fall Golf schedule, the Kimball girls had five tournaments in the month of August, and Wise has already been a top ten medal winner in three of those events.
The balance of the team will consist of some talented all around athletes who have made the switch to golf after playing volleyball in prior years. Seniors Lacey Klinkhammer and Sheridan Magninie will provide some solid leadership and with their athletic abilities, should catch on the the game quickly according to coach Maas. The same applies to junior Carli Wurdeman. Sophomore Sam Bemis is yet another standout athlete who is showing a lot of promise.
"Sam has already shown me she can really hit the ball long and now we just need to work on her short game skills and her mental aspects of the game," Maas said.
There should be some real battles for varsity spots among this group and the tournament lineups could vary on almost a weekly basis.
"We have some natural athletic talent on this team but we have a lot of work to do to get where we can be competitive as a team," Maas said. "We are going to work hard at adjusting our mental game. I like our enthusiasm and I am excited to be working with this group of girls."
As to goals for the season, Maas said, "Our goal is to shoot better each tournament, to keep improving, and come District time, we want to be playing our best golf. Our senior leadership has been good and we are working hard at getting some pride back into the girl's golf program."
Kimball has four more tournaments on the September schedule before they move into District Tournament play in October, and hopefully a trip to state also. It would appear there is certainly more interest in the program than there has been, and more gifted athletes giving the sport a try. It would also appear that the sport is moving in a positive new direction.
