Last season, for the first time, we had three classes in high school golf. The advisory board met soon after the State tournaments to discuss the tournaments while they were fresh in the minds of all. We discussed the tourneys and had additional input from others who were at each site. We hope to make the tournaments even better this spring by "tweaking" where needed. Many topics were discussed about the tournaments and I believe all topics were covered but if you have concerns or suggestions for next springs events let me know and the proper contacts will be made.

 

The discussed items at the June 22nd advisory board meeting included the weather (of course), academic ratings and stroke ratings, the banquets, coaching on the course, individual fall golf tournaments, fall golf, a split golf season, and discussion of a one week later state tournament which would coincide with the state baseball tourney week (not happening this spring - this was also discussed at the board of directors meeting in June as well-see the MSHSL.ORG website)

 

At the meeting we went around the table and drew the names of eight programs which received a check for $500.00 from Birdie Marketing-the golf fundraiser. Remember your program needs to sell only 25 cards and you must be a member of the coaches association for the current year in order to get your name into the drawing. Birdie Marketing is the golf card the Golf Coaches Assn endorses - there are other golf cards, but this one benefits our programs and association and I hope we continue to support it. Also, the odds are pretty good in having your name drawn. 

 

A congratulation goes out to the coaches of the year for 2008:
CLASS A

Boys-Roger Erickson, Lake of the Woods
Girls- tie Marsha Johnson, Ada Borup/Norman County West and Steve Tax, Osakis
Assistant - Terry Schoenborn Mahnomen
CLASS AA
Boys- Bob Gordon, Detroit Lakes
Girls- Peggy Falk, Minnewaska
No Assistant
CLASS AAA
Boys- John Buck, Forrest Lake
Girls- Dave Harris, Alexandria
Assistant- Bob Gesell, Brainerd
 

A special congratulation goes out to all of the individuals and the teams which won the academic awards. There always seems to be many individual academic champions and there always seems to be discussion on how to recognize them. Any ideas?
 

At the meeting we discussed the idea of starting an award for either individuals who have given or golf courses which have given to high school golf. If you have ideas on this let me know and we will see where this idea goes in the next few years. \par
A special thank you goes out to Kerry Bidle of Virginia for figuring the stroke averages of the top players and another thank you goes to Steve Heslop of Pequot Lakes for figuring the academic champions. They work very hard at the busy time of the season trying to get the information to the people in charge of the golf banquets. Also, thank yous are in order for Rich Aulie of Crosby Ironton, Mike Frankenfield of Shattuck, St. Marys and Tim Kallevig of Park Center for all of the hard work in getting the three state tournament banquets together. There is a time commitment, meetings and preparation which goes into pulling these off. Last, a thank you is in order to Glen Hasselberg for the past two years as president and to the past advisory board members. You have been in good hands. I am looking forward to working with both the new board members as well as the members which are carryovers.

Last, I would like to encourage you to join the coaches association earlier in the school year. Last year I tried to use broadcast emails to reach the members. For example, It always seems to take more time to make changes in golf at the state level - whether the topic is coaching on the course, fall golf, change to three classes, etc. If we were able to communicate faster maybe we could shorten up the time it takes to make these changes. I have set up a separate email address which I will be using to communicate with coaches it is mnhsgolfer@charter.net -as in Minnesota high school golfer. We could use broadcast emails to reach members and start a dialog on many topics-(especially this year since we do not have the rules meetings). We could use it to ask questions of other members like--how do you start-up a spring trip, how do you do qualifying or we could use it for questions like what are your thoughts on fall golf, coaching on the course, etc. Let me know of ideas on topics and we can see if it works--for example maybe the golf card should be sold at the holiday time and used as a gift.

Again congrats to all award winners, a thank you to all who have helped out. Remember all awards are given to members of the Golf Coaches Assn--so join early and get your forms in on time, and start using the email of mnhsgolfer@charter.net.

I would like to thank everyone who has preceded me in this capacity, and I hope together we continue to grow high school golf in Minnesota over the next two years. Anyone missed in the thank you's will be acknowledged in the emails coming in the next few months.