All change comes with consequence. So shall it be when the Vermont Principals Association’s move of high school golf to a fall schedule comes to fruition in August.
The change arrived over the past few months, after receiving the approval of Vermont courses and high school athletic directors as well as the VPA’s golf and activities standards committees. With the autumn switch, Vermont will join New Hampshire, if not the rest of New England, in reserving high school golf competition for when courses are in prime condition.
It’s taken at least two decades to get to this point. While the move has drawn an enthusiastic response from some coaches, others have reservations.
Count Rivendell’s Justin Bonnett in the latter category. As an assistant professional at Fairlee’s Lake Morey Country Club, Bonnett has been in position to host and guide the Raptor program for the past 11 seasons. Fall also marks the lakeside resort’s busiest time of year, when leaf-peeping out-of-towners are most likely to fill Lake Morey’s fairways.
“The switch to the fall season doesn’t seem like the best fit for us, because August and September are the busiest months of the year at Lake Morey, so playing availability is scarce,” Bonnett said in a recent email.
Second-year Hartford High coach Mike Hathorn has excitedly embraced the move.
“I have wanted this change since I started helping out the Hartford golf team 20 years ago,” Hathorn said. “Every year, we come out of the winter having not touched golf clubs for at least six months. When our season starts, we are usually in my classroom learning rules and talking about swings, but we have to wait for the snow to melt just to get to the range.”
Spring golf means little or no preseason, Hathorn noted. Fall golf will afford that.
“I know there is a chance that we may lose a soccer player or two, but I also know we have lacrosse and baseball players in school who play golf,” Hathorn said. “I could see us picking up a few other athletes.”
Being a larger school, Hartford has the luxury of a larger pool of talent from which to form a golf team. Smaller schools don’t and may be hurt by the change.
Mid Vermont Christian co-coach Kent Dahlberg predicted the end of the Eagles’ program — at least in its current form — because of the switch to autumn play. Golf is the only spring team sport at the tiny Quechee school; boys soccer and girls volleyball hold sway in the fall. Unless MVCS, which has about 40 students in grades 9-12, allows athletes to split their time between both sports, which some schools do allow, the Eagles may have to stay a spring program without a league in which to compete.
“Since many of our players are relatively new to the game and just developing their skills, we could make this alternative approach work while also creating ways to challenge our more committed competitive-level players,” Dahlberg said. “We have sufficient interest at the school to continue running a golf program at MVCS. But given our size and need to allocate athletes to volleyball and soccer in the fall, a fall golf schedule is not workable for us.”
Bonnett said his concern for Rivendell isn’t so much for the immediate future as the one in the near horizon. The Raptors haven’t had large numbers at the varsity level recently; they even spent half of a recent campaign with too few golfers to record team scores.
“I am not worried about this fall or next; after that, I am concerned for our program,” he said. “I do understand the two main points for the switch: A set-in-stone starting day for the season and the ability for the kids and the courses to be in golfing shape when the season begins.”
The move brings new opportunity. Hathorn noted that, for the first time in Hartford history, the Hurricanes will be able to schedule matches with Hanover and Lebanon, which have always known fall golf in New Hampshire. Never before have Vermont high school golfers had a season where they didn’t have to wait for winter’s departure first.
All understand the reasoning. Some understand this change will provide new obstacles.
“I think the switch to the fall makes a lot of sense, as the courses are in great shape, the weather is nice and warm, and the kids are fresh off a summer of playing golf,” Windsor coach Pat Allen said. “The trouble is going to be recruiting new players that don’t play a fall sport.”
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.