The Westside boys golf team has had an impressive start to the season, placing runner-up in both the Papio and Grand Island Invites to Creighton Prep. In the two events, the Warriors proved as a true competitor, only losing in those two invites by a combined three strokes. Westside has shown to be one of the top teams in the state , and head coach Brett Froendt is satisfied with the team’s result but knows there are things to clean up. 

“Overall, [the team played] pretty well. Our score dictated that,” Froendt said. “We’re a stroke away from the school record. But, we left a lot of putts on the course. Three of our guys were in the mid 30’s for putts and that’s never good. There’s a lot of room for improvement. We didn’t have our A game but we still played pretty well.”

Froendt also acknowledged that even with a talented team, the work to get better will dictate how far this team will go.

“We’re playing at the top,” Froendt said. “We know we’ve got it, it’s just a matter of getting one percent better every day and finishing at the top at the end of the season. Knowing we can compete at the beginning of the year gives us confidence for the rest of the season.”

With such a competitive team, Froendt knows it’s important that they leave it all out on the course.

“We’re scoring in the 70s consistently in our first two tournaments, and the kids know they’re leaving strokes out there,” Froendt said. “We’ve got 8 strong guys that can play golf, so it will be interesting to see the competition unfold throughout the end of the season so we can see who our top five are.”

Senior Kolby Brown shared the same thoughts as Coach Froendt, they had a decent day, but there’s still a lot to work on.

“I struck it pretty well, just had a tough time on the green. We played well. It wasn’t our best game. But you dont wanna play your best game early on in the season. We’ve kept saying this. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’re just gonna keep getting better, one percent every day.”

The Warriors and their rival Chreighton Prep have been so close throughout these first two events, with the Warriors falling short by just a combined three strokes in the first two invites.

“It’s a great rivalry,” Brown said. “I know most of the guys over there, and they’re all good guys. Obviously, we’re all competitive and we all wanna win. It was fun the first 2 tournaments but we’re gonna keep on playing.”

With such a great team, it’s important that the warriors don’t get ahead of themselves and stay consistent. 

“Consistency is key,” Brown said. “Just being able to make sure we’re putting the ball well too and that we can save a lot of strokes on the green. We’ll go into practice these next couple of weeks focusing on that and we’ll see where we are in a couple weeks.”

With so much more to prove, the Warriors will continue their season at Elkhorn on April 5th.