If it's April, it must be time for golf - and Carlton County high schoolers are hitting the links to start their season this week.
In Moose Lake-Willow River, coach Brad Hubred has 17 golfers in grades 7-12: six girls and 11 boys, three of whom are seniors.
The Rebels have a bit of an advantage in that they didn't graduate any seniors from last year's team so everyone is back. Marek Mesojedec, Ruby Mohelsky and Future-Hope Vang lead the girls while Hunter Klund paces the boys.
The girls won the Polar Cup last season with Mesojedec, Mohelsky and Vang all making the section tournament.
"We have some good young boys who came out this year combined with our seniors should help us compete for the Polar Cup this year for boys," Hubred said. "It is my hope that both the girls and boys golf teams make the section tournament this year with hard work, and practice. It will be a good season this year for both teams, and I look forward to watching how the season plays out."
At Barnum, Brent Donaldson takes over as coach after five seasons assisting Cullen Franek. The Bombers have two seniors and try to replace Greyson Lekander, who graduated last year.
Nolan Wickstrom captains the boys team while senior Geana Guillard captains the girls. Juniors Lucak Koecher and Trevor Houck join sophomore Brandon Calverley and freshman Dawson Collelo to round out the boys roster, while junior Madeline Nelson, freshmen Alivia Stahlbusch and Madeline Manahan and eighth-grader Delaney Koecher make up the girls team.
Guillard and Nelson both played at state last year and were all-conference players.
"We are looking forward to gaining some experience as the season goes along and build for the future of our girls team," Donaldson said. "Both Geana and Madeline are hoping to return to this year's state tournament again as individual qualifiers.
"Geana is the longest tenured member of the current Bomber golf program, having started as a seventh-grader," Donaldson added. "Nolan has been with the program since ninth grade and their leadership and experience has been invaluable to our program."
The Bombers boys are coming off their best section tournament finish in six years.
"Individually we have the ability within our team to possibly see all-conference players and maybe even a state qualifier," Donaldson said.
Cloquet-Esko-Carlton has 12 girls in grades 7-12 out for the team with two seniors and no graduated players to replace. Kate Owens is expected to be the top returning golfer this season, according to coach Matt Carlson.
"CEC girls golf has been in rebuilding mode the last couple years," Carlson said. "We're finally getting some solid numbers trying out for the team. We did not lose anyone to graduation, so we essentially have the same team as last year with a year of experience under their belts."
"We still have a young team, with five freshmen that will play a lot for us," Carlson added. "The freshmen are a strong group that we can build around in the years to come. We have tough competition in Section 7AAA but hopefully we can be in the conference mix this year."
