Bellevue East’s boy’s golf team has grown in numbers and skill in recent years, using practices and meets to help grow their golf skills.
The team may not have a roster as large as other sports, like football, but they have been growing in membership. Last year, four players graduated who had been on the team for four years. This year, they have 7 new members who have never played competitive golf before.
“That has brought some fun coaching challenges to us as we help them begin their golfing journey,” head coach Trevor Lenear said. “The returners from last year’s team have shown a real improvement from last year.”
Players on the team attend practice everyday after school at Eagle Hills Golf Course, an 18 hole golf course in Papillion. Practice can be very helpful to fine tune certain skills before players have to use these skills at meets.
“Practice helps players prepare because it is a lot of time to simply practice hitting golf balls,” Lenear said. “In tournaments or practice rounds on the course, you get one chance to hit a good shot and you have to live with the results. At practice on the driving range, the guys are able to practice a certain shot over and over again until they grow in confidence and can eliminate some of the mistakes that may happen on the golf course.”
The effectiveness of practicing varies from player to player. For some players, the different challenges or circumstances they are put in during practice help them to be ready for meets.
“The situations that our coaches put us in help me with what I need to do and accomplish during a meet,” sophomore Oliver Headley said.
There are typically 1-2 meets per week, and the majority of these meets are played somewhere in the Omaha Metro. However, the varsity team this season plans on attending a meet in Gothenburg, Nebraska, at Wildhorse Golf Club, which is a nationally recognized course. The golf team has a varsity team and a JV team, and varsity members usually play about 15 rounds of competitive golf throughout the season at meets.
“Meets [are] just fun to be at; just [to] get out there, enjoy the day,” junior Ian Campbell said.
Players have joined the golf team for a wide variety of reasons. Some people, like Headley, have done golf for a year or two on their own and are now just starting to play golf competitively. Others are motivated by different things, such as family involvement in the sport.
“I’ve been playing golf for three years, and the reason I joined the golf team is because my family- my dad, my uncle- they play golf,” Campbell said. “It’s just a very relaxing sport so it’s just fun to get out there and play.”
According to the Better Health Channel, golf has many benefits, including reduced stress. For some players, golf is a fun way to play a sport and hang out with friends.
“Practice is really fun,” Headley said. “I like the meets too, but it just doesn’t feel…like a sport, it feels more like having fun with your friends.”
Helping the team with everyday endeavours and challenges is the head coach, Lenear. He has been coaching golf for 7 years, and this is his second year being the head coach.
“My favorite part of coaching golf is seeing how happy players are after they have improved and the sense of accomplishment that they feel when reaching their goals,” Lenear said.
