Claremont
The Cardinals have been playing golf for many years, but only on three occasions (2001, 2003, 2011) have they reached the postseason as a team. Only the 2001 squad had any tournament success, finishing as the NHIAA Class I runner-up by one stroke to Pembroke.
But the golf scene began changing years ago, when Dody Belski instituted a junior program at Claremont Country Club. Today, some of the players who count Belski — who died in 2014 — as an influence will be competing in today’s NHIAA Division III state team golf tournament at the Waukewan Golf Club in Center Harbor.
“I think of Dodi every day,” Stevens golfer Ian MacDonald said. “She spent so much time with me. I owe her so much.”
There are other factors that have contributed to the resurgence of the sport at Stevens.
Ryan Seaver is in his second season as the team’s coach, and he knows his way around the golf course. He is a two-handicapper and three times has won Newport Golf Club’s championship-flight title.
“I knew, with most everybody coming back, there was a chance this team could do something,” Seaver said this week.
It didn’t hurt that assistant coach Brian Stowell has a golf room with a Trackman launch monitor at his family’s business site, Crown Point Cabinetry, that he lets the team use during the offseason.
“Three or four of the players have used the Trackman, particularly Cody Schoolcraft,” Stowell said.
Schoolcraft is the team’s No. 1 golfer and is playing the sport only because, as a middle-schooler, he had four concussions playing football. Now a senior, Schoolcraft didn’t take up golf until his freshman year, when he found out that his football career was over.
He is also realistic in knowing that winning the state title today is not going to happen for a team that grabbed the seventh and last playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. For this team following a long postseason drought, moving up the ladder will be satisfaction enough.
“If we play well, we can probably jump over a couple of teams,” Schoolcraft said.
The format for today’s event, which begins at 9 a.m., is 18 holes of stroke play, with each team taking the top four scores of seven golfers. The top 12 scorers and ties will advance to the individual tourney on Saturday back at Waukewan.
Waukewan is a short course at 5,828 yards, and Seaver has a game plan that includes irons off the tees. The Cards’ Teagan Daignault, however, will keep the driver handy. “It’s my best club,” he said.
“For everybody else, we’re going to leave the driver in the bag,” Seaver said. “We’re just going to keep the ball in play, avoid penalty strokes and just keep playing our irons.”
The course is familiar to the Cardinals, who will play there for the third time.
“Trees are a problem,” Stevens’ Matt LeClair said. “They are everywhere. A good score can turn bad real easy.”
There are two holes on the course that mess up a scorecard. The closing hole is a 230-yard par-4 with a huge pond in front of a bunker-surrounded green.
“You just have to lay up there and wedge it to the green,” the Cards’ Tim Berry said.
“Yeah, that hole can be a 3 or 10,” teammate Hunter LaClair added.
The other danger spot is the 550-yard par-5 sixth hole, with water on both sides of the fairway approximately halfway to the hole.
“That’s about three irons and a wedge,” Seaver said.
Seaver is aware that while this is a vastly improved team, it is not going to challenge for the title today. That may be in a future brightened by the Cards’ present success.
“Our strategy is to play pressure-less golf, have some fun, grind out the matches and play one hole at a time. I think we could finish in the top four,” Seaver said.
Seaver made one last point clear to his up-and-coming squad: “Let’s do it for Dody.”
Waukewan should bring back warm memories for Newport High, which won its second straight NHIAA Division IV championship on the course last year and which returns today for a run a three in a row.
Senior Cameron Gebo leads an experienced roster of Tigers, who completed their second straight undefeated regular season (18-0) last week. To top it off, Newport’s final victims included second-ranked Moultonborough (21-2), the only squad likely to mount a serious challenge today.
Meanwhile, Lebanon (19-3) makes its D-III championship debut after a successful inaugural season in the league. Paced by senior Hunter Marsh, the Raiders arrive at Waukewan as a No. 3 seed with a dark-horse shot at a title. Lebanon’s three losses came to the two teams above it in the standings, No. 1 Bow (27-0) and No. 2 Derryfield (22-1).
In Concord, Hanover (21-2) looks to defend its back-to-back NHIAA D-II titles at Beaver Meadow Golf Course today. As always, Windham (24-0) provides the biggest obstacle, although the Marauders’ four crowns over the past five years have all come at the Jaguars’ expense, including two on sixth-golfer tiebreakers.
Two-time defending D-II individual champ James McKee leads Windham; Hanover counters with solid junior Phin Choukas and a roster whose depth usually trumps the Jaguars’ top-end talent. No. 3 Portsmouth (21-4) could also contend.
VALLEY NEWS sports editor Greg Fennell contributed to this report.