PREP GIRLS GOLF PREVIEW: Lots of changes as 2022 season gets underway

Aug. 3—A lot of change highlights the girls golf scene heading into the 2022 season, which began this past Monday.

Four new head coaches are in charge, as Ashley Hutchison takes over at Concord, Todd King at Elkhart, Madison Gayer at Jimtown and Kirsten Schrock at NorthWood.

Schrock has the biggest shoes to fill of the three, as she's replacing longtime Panther coach Adam Yoder. During Yoder's 14 seasons, NorthWood became one of the premier programs in the state of Indiana. Along with numerous Northern Lakes Conference and sectional championships, the Panthers advanced to the state tournament six times under Yoder's tenure, including the last four seasons.

A new coach wasn't the only change to hit NorthWood, as its top two players from last year, Cybil Stillson and Bre Goss, are both now playing collegiately at Butler and Indiana Wesleyan University, respectively. This leaves the Panthers with a roster featuring two seniors — Schrock's younger sister, Kira, and Riley Kitson — and five freshmen.

"There will be a lot of improvement seen from these girls this season," Kirsten Schrock said. "They have already improved a lot from early this summer and I am so excited to see where their hard work takes them. I think, along with some good golf of course, we are going to have a very fun season."

King returns to Elkhart after spending the last two seasons coaching the Northridge boys golf program. He had stints coaching Elkhart Central and Elkhart Memorial before Scott Sekal was hired as the golf coach when the two schools merged into one Elkhart High starting with the 2020-21 school year.

While the Elkhart roster this fall is small and mostly inexperienced, King is excited to be back coaching in the school district he teaches in.

"I am looking forward to the upcoming girls golf season," King said. "We look for returning Lions, seniors Natalie Edmisten and Savannah Crussmeyer (who played for me as freshman at Elkhart Memorial), to lead our new players. Our kids are very coachable and work hard, so we are looking for improvement throughout the season. This will be a rebuilding year. Our numbers are low, so I am looking forward to the challenge as the new head coach to get more kids interested in golf by promoting our program in the upcoming off season."

Hutchison is taking over the Concord program after Tara Boessler led it for the last seven seasons. The Minutemen made a state appearance in 2020 under Boessler and was in contention for NLC and regional tournament berths for most of Boessler's tenure.

As for this season, Hutchison said the goal remains the same as past Minutemen teams.

"The girls set a goal to make it to regionals as a team and they have been working hard," Hutchison said.

While there's plenty of change around the area, two programs seeing some stability are Northridge and Goshen. The Raiders return almost their entire roster from last season, including state qualifier Karisa Dyer. The junior is expected to be in contention to advance to the state tournament again, while Northridge's depth will give them a chance to contend in the NLC and sectionals as a whole.

"This year the team should be much improved," Northridge coach Ken Brewster said. "Several players worked hard all summer and played in tournaments around the state. The return of state qualifier Karisa Dyer will bring solid experience at the top of the lineup. Other players I expect to contribute right away would be senior Maria Papandrea, sophomores Addy and Lizzy Irving, and freshmen Alex Reschly and Macey Riegsecker. By the middle of the season, I predict that it will be hard for me to make lineups with the potential this team has and the improvements for all players."

Meanwhile, all six players on the RedHawks' roster return to a team that made it to regionals last season. Seniors Maya Narayan and Briza Tayagua-Delgado will look to lead Goshen to the second weekend of the state tournament once again while also trying to improve off a 1-6 NLC record from a season ago.

"We have a smaller team this year (smaller than I've ever had since coaching at Goshen), but they are all returning players and I hope they take this opportunity to grow more than ever," Goshen coach Jenna Pecenka said. "A smaller team means not as much moving around to try and give advice or check-in with players!"

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CONCORD MINUTEMEN

Head coach: Ashley Hutchison, 1st season

Assistant coaches: Wayne Jennette

Last season's record: 9-5 (4-3 NLC)

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Madison Weaver, Makenzie Peterson, Ryleigh Robinson; Junior: Mia McEachern; Sophomores: Avery McDowell, Mahra Chris, Sierra Rupp

Other varsity players: Sophomore: Lia Davis; Freshman: Sarah Funston

ELKHART LIONS

Head coach: Todd King, 1st season

Assistant coaches: Courtney King, Rodney Styles

Last season's record: Not provided

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Natalie Edmisten, Savannah Crussmeyer

Other varsity players: Senior: Lydia Fitzgerald; Junior: Mardi Waits; Freshman: Evie McCormick.

FAIRFIELD FALCONS

Head coach: Brent Nunemaker, 5th season (30-31 overall record)

Assistant coaches: Landyn Nunemaker

Last season's record: 13-3 (7-2 NECC)

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Bailey Willard, Malley Behles; Junior: Addie Mast

Other varsity players: Senior: Elyse Yoder; Junior: Paige Lantz; Sophomore: Lauren Taylor; Freshmen: Mallory McGowen, Bella Blosser

Head coach's comments on the upcoming season: "As coaches we are looking forward to our three returning girls to be huge leaders for this team. Bailey, Malley and Addie were a very big part to our success last season and we are hoping they carry that on this season. The five new girls to the team are either younger or new to golf. We will be adding two freshmen to the varsity for the beginning of the season, and they are coming off playing in the spring for the junior high team. We as a team are just ready to get the season started and get some practices and matches under our belt. We would just like to be competitive in all of our matches and finish well in the conference. We really want to work on consistency and course management with the team and are hoping that will help lower some scores."

GOSHEN REDHAWKS

Head coach: Jenna Pecenka, 6th season (11-53 overall)

Assistant coaches: Charlie Walesa

Last season's record: 2-8 (1-6 NLC)

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Maya Narayan, Briza Tayagua-Delgado; Juniors: Kiley Wise, Kendall Hill; Sophomore: Sophia Garber

Other varsity players: Junior: Ella Potter

JIMTOWN JIMMIES

Head coach: Madison Gayer, 1st season

Assistant coaches: None

Last season's record: N/A

Returning letterwinners: None

Other varsity players: Freshman: Lilly Wittner

Head coach's comments on the upcoming season: "This is Lilly's first time playing and she recently joined just a few days ago. My hopes this year is to grow the team and hopefully spike interest in the program, as well as getting Lilly comfortable with a new sport and for myself to transition from being a player to a coach. Lots of buildable expectations for the program. With Lilly being a freshman, I expect to see lots of growth in the next four years, as she has already been showing growth her first two days."

NORTHRIDGE RAIDERS

Head coach: Ken Brewster, 11th season

Assistant coaches: Clinten Lawrence

Last season's record: 3-10 (2-5 NLC)

Returning letterwinners: Senior: Maria Papandrea; Junior: Karisa Dyer; Sophomores: Lizzy Irving, Addy Irving, Alyssa Karpenko

Other varsity players: Juniors: Aline VonHolzen, Avery Virok; Sophomore: Bailey Padgett; Freshmen: Alex Reschly, Macey Riegsecker, Camrey Henderson, Ashia Yoder, Taylor Trump

Head coach's comments on the upcoming season: "My expectations from this team are to continue to improve and to be competitive this year, not only during the state tournament series (starting in sectionals), but we could be a sleeper team in the NLC as well. With the realignment of sectionals and regionals this year, this team has a great shot at making the regionals as a team. Goals will be fighting for a conference title and going as far as we can in the tournament at the end of the year."

NORTHWOOD PANTHERS

Head coach: Kirsten Schrock, 1st season

Assistant coaches: Payton Grubbs, Breanna Goss, Rodney Schrock

Last season's record: 9-2 (7-0 NLC)

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Kira Schrock, Riley Kitson

Other varsity players: Freshmen: Sophie Richmond, Joey Slone, Leah Rowe, Sophie Yoder, Marley Jordan

WAWASEE WARRIORS

Head coach: Steve Coverstone, 11th season (144 wins)

Assistant coaches: Laura Coverstone

Last season's record: 6-11 (3-4 NLC)

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Rylee Firestone, Delaney Delagrange, Ava Pohl

Other varsity players: Senior: Molly McDonald; Freshmen: Francie McDonald, Taelyn Tom

Head coach's comments on the upcoming season: "Improvement will be our focus."

WEST NOBLE CHARGERS

Head coach: Ethan Marsh, 2nd season (10-7 overall record)

Assistant coaches: None

Last season's record: 10-7 (7-2 NECC)

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Mackensy Mabie, Tori Hamman, Abigail Hawn, Ashlyn Seigel; Junior: Aubrey Weigold

Other varsity players: Freshman: Lacy Leamon

Head coach's comments on the upcoming season: "Looking forward to our season. We have a great group of girls returning with a lot of experience. Hopefully we can continue to build on a solid season last fall."

WESTVIEW WARRIORS

Head coach: Jeff Marchant, 8th season

Assistant coaches: None

Last season's record: 10-4

Returning letterwinners: Seniors: Hope Haarer, Ava Brown; Junior: Danika Yoder.

Other varsity players: Senior: Savannah Hoover; Freshmen: Lilyan Bennett, Becky Moore

Head coach's comments on the upcoming season: "We are excited to get the season started. We have some new faces and we have 2 seniors that started their freshmen year and here they are at their last season. We are going to try to improve on last season's record and try to be in the top 3 at sectionals."

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.