Twenty-one girls turn out for golf

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Golf continues to surge in popularity for both the boys and girls golfers at Frazee-Vergas High School. This season the girls golf team will have 21 people on the golf team, including seven returning letter winners. That kind of experience, all of whom are underclassmen, has the coaches and staff excited about the future of golf in Frazee. 

“I am excited for the season as we have solid numbers again this year with 21 girls signed up for golf,” said head coach David Conzemius. “We have no seniors but we do have a nice mix of girls out for golf in grades 7-11 which includes nine juniors. We return six golfers with varsity experience from a year ago and hopefully we have some more girls step up this season and get in the mix as well.”

The Hornets will be led this season by junior Emma Wiseman who was not only a member of the Heart O’ Lakes all-conference team, but also qualified for the Section 8AA meet as a sophomore.  

Other returning letter winners include: juniors: Liberty Peterson, Lilly Adams, Ella Perala, Gracie Fales, Onalea Maijala and sophomore Rylee Stock.

If the Hornets want to be competitive this season they will need to fill a big gap left by Krysten Halverson, who was on varsity since the seventh grade, and was a three-time HOL all conference golfer. She graduated last year. 

Some of the non-letter winners who could make an impact on varsity this season will include: junior Emma Beimert, sophomore Madison Boyer and sophomore Emersyn Wake.

With quite a bit of experience coming back to the team this year, yet no seniors on the team, Conzemius said the team will not only hope to improve on the golf course, but find a way to have fun doing so as well. 

“Our goals for the girls is to improve on their individual skill and have fun while doing so,” said Conzemius. “Golf is a very difficult sport and we always stress that you need to be patient in order to succeed in golf.”

Heading into action later this month, Conzemius said returning HOL champion Hawley will return their entire team and will be a tough team once again this year. He said Perham will also be among the top teams in the conference, while Detroit Lakes will be one of the top teams in the section after finishing third at the Class AAA team meet last year. With no seniors on the team and dropping to Class AA, the Lakers are an early season favorite to capture the Section 8AA title.

In addition to Conzemius, the Hornets will be coached by Jerry Bellefeuille, who is an assistant coach for both the boys and girls golf teams.