Inexperience an issue for Eagle golf squad

The numbers are good but the talent is youthful for Uniontown's boys' golf team after graduation took three key members from last year's squad.

Eagle head coach Jason Tourtillott is entering his sixth year guiding the team and will field possibly one of his youngest ever.

"We lost the backbone of our team last year with our seniors Seth Sympson, Chance Hoener, and Zach Travis," Tourtillott says. "We have eight boys out this season and only one that has ever played competitively for us. With that in mind, we are going to be really young and inexperienced.

"So most of our season will be building off our strengths week to week trying to get better.

Brenton Esslinger returns as a senior after taking last season off. He is one of four seniors on the team.

"We have several new seniors who have a passion for the game so I hope to see them gradually progress and make a difference later in the season," Tourtillott said.

The other seniors are Austin Jefferis, Dakota Wiley, and Jay Hierholzer. There are no juniors. Sophomore Jonathan Wheeler and freshmen Nick Reynolds, Cole Rockhold, and Dalton Clifton round out the roster.

Tourtillott said he expects familiar opponents Jayhawk-Linn and Pleasanton to once again be the stiffest competition.

"My hope is that as the season progresses, we will start seeing some results as far as understanding the game managing the course and therefore lowering our scores," Tourtilott said in a Thursday email. "Our big goal would be to have an individual or the team qualify at Regionals to make the State Tournament. However we know we have a lot of work to get to that point."

The weather hasn't been very cooperative for the Eagles in pre-season practice, but they hope to begin the season on time Monday with at the Erie Invitational. The start time has been changed 3 p.m. to 1 in hopes of avoiding potential weather issues.

Should the Erie tournament be rained out, the Eagles would play April 8 at Marmaton Valley's tournament.