Despite Jakob Wellman graduating and new leadership taking over the boys golf program, Owensboro Catholic Head Coach Eddie Miller said the Aces are still looking to make a return to the state tournament this season.
Owensboro Catholic had a strong 2021 campaign, sending Wellman to state individually while grabbing third place in the 2nd Region Tournament with a team score of 343. The Aces will return a core group of upperclassmen in JT Payne, Noah Johnson, Houston Danzer and Hayden Crabtree.
With an otherwise young roster, Eddie said that the experience, maturity, leadership and hard work ethic that the quartet of golfers has under their belt is crucial to developing the team as a whole.
“We have two seniors, a junior, and the rest are sophomores, freshmen, one eighth grader and three seventh graders,” Miller said. “That being said, we’re a very young team. Being a first year coach we’ve looked to our upperclassmen to help with the underclassmen in the sense of being examples of hard work and a level of maturity.”
The Aces have several underclassmen, including seventh graders John William Wathen and Andrew Powell, who Miller said are talented and is hoping to work them into the rotation at some point in the season.
In earning rotation time, Miller said that he will need the upperclassmen to lead by example. By doing so, this will help players maintain growth mentally and physically in their games.
“The keys for success for us is the leadership of our upperclassmen and the experience our underclassmen will gain throughout the season,” Miller said. “Some of the things we’d like to see improve from last year would be course management and consistency which will provide the confidence to perform during the season.”
While there will be growing pains along the way, Miller believes this group is capable of a deep postseason run and plans to put them in the best possible situations to help them grow as the season progresses.
“Like all coaches our goal is to make it to state and to do this we know it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” Miller said. “That’s why we’ve put together a full and rigorous schedule which will help to build confidence and instill hard work all season to give them the best possible chance to perform.”
