The 2002 season will long be remembered by the Lake Orion High School Varsity Boys Golf Team, but coach Monty Gallaher hopes that it will not overshadow this year’s team.
“I’m not saying we’ll be as good this year,” Gallaher said at the varsity team’s first practice on Aug. 7 at Oxford Hills. “Last year’s team just overachieved. There’s luck involved in golf though, you have to get the right breaks at the right time.”
Returning to the 2003 Dragons are seniors Chris Bier, Tommy Miszewski, Matt Zitzmann and Doug Collins; juniors Nick Bierschbach, Jeff Peters; and sophomore David Kurtz. On Aug. 7, Gallaher said that the final roster had not yet been set and that the current varsity listing was preliminary, but there would be eight players on the squad this season.
“At the end of last year we lost four seniors and they were all contributors. I was a little worried,” Gallaher said. “Chris and Jeff are back from the team that I took to the state finals (last season).
“Tommy has been playing well in tournaments all summer. He’ll definitely be a contributor for us,” he said. “David Kurtz is at the Powerbuilt State Championship (Aug. 7). After the first day he was in seventh overall…they take the top 50.”
Gallaher called Kurtz the “fourth piece of the puzzle.”
“He may step in and be our best player,” he said.
Gallaher said he plans to employ the same coaching strategy he used with last year’s team, who went on to become Lake Orion’s first-ever regional champions.
“We’re focusing on the regional, same as last year,” he said. “We’re viewing (everything else) as practice. It’s all practice…you’d like to win, and we were undefeated last year in league matches. I think it helped take the pressure off asking them to view it all as practice.”
Gallaher said he is trying to make this year’s team an “enjoyable environment” for his players.
“This isn’t the PGA,” he said. “They are students…we expect them to do that on their own time, but we’re only going to keep them at practice a couple of ours so they have time to go home and have dinner and do homework.”
Gallaher said last year was his first as a varsity coach, and he was trying to fill former Lake Orion coach Gary Newcomb’s shoes.
“They’re pretty big,” he said. “But I was trying to make it relaxed, and they just excelled.
“I have no expectations this year,” he continued. “We’ll target the regional, that’s our goal and our focus. Everything else is practice for that day. Golf is different than any other sport, because it’s that one day or you don’t go to the state finals.”
Gallaher said his team is anxious to return to the state finals this season. Lake Orion finished 18th last year.
“We got that taste in our mouths,” he said. “We want to go back.”