Blue Jay golf is five seniors deep, coach excited to get going
Aug. 6—JAMESTOWN — Jamestown High School girls golf coach, Katie Hemmer, has been moving a mile a minute for the past week.
"It always feels rushed because we start so early and we have our first practice on Monday and our first meet on Friday (but) I am excited to get the season started," Hemmer said.
Hemmer and the Blue Jays began practices on Aug. 4 and will open official play on Friday at the Turtle Mountain Tournament at Carrington's Cross Roads Golf Course. Golfers are set to tee off at 10 a.m.
The Jays' schedule doesn't slow down after that.
On Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 11-12, the Jays will host the annual East-West Classic at the Jamestown Country Club and Hillcrest Golf Course. Hemmer said the meet will begin at noon on Monday at Hillcrest and 8 a.m. on Tuesday at the Country Club.
"We really just have too many teams to put onto one course," Hemmer said. "When they first started doing the East-West Classic, it was right when Jamestown moved from the East to the West so when Jamestown moved into the West Region they still wanted to play with some of the east schools so they hosted a meet with everybody.
"That was before Fargo added additional high schools and Bismarck added more schools and Minot has two high schools now and the sport has grown," she said. "You just can't host 24 schools on one course it gets to be a little silly. This allows us to spread out a little bit and have a little quicker pace of play a little more conducive to competition."
Jamestown has its third meet in seven days on Aug. 15 at Watford City's Fox Hills Golf Course.
"I'll tell you what when you look at all that we have on the schedule before October 1st, it looks pretty intense," Hemmer said.
Thankfully, Jamestown's team of golfers is led by five veterans who are accustomed to the grueling eight-week season.
"I can't believe this group of girls are seniors this year," Hemmer said. "My first year coaching they were 10th graders. It's really fun to see how far they have come. To see this many upper-classmen on a golf team is unique and it should be a real privilege to have their leadership for everyone else on the team."
This year's seniors are Belle Sjostrom, Mylee Michel, Autumn Roberts, Brooke Dietrich and Taylor Miller.
"Belle and Mylee started on the team together and have developed a really close friendship, Autumn joined the team as a sophomore and was new to the game of golf but saw improvements in her game last year. She has one more opportunity to make improvements in her high school career.
"Brooke joined her sophomore year too and she has found her spot and made some good improvements and is looking forward to being in the competition more this year," she said. "Taylor is a good golfer too. She is homeschool student and one of the things I think she likes about competing with the golf team is coming and hanging out with her friends."
As of Aug. 1, Hemmer said she was expecting 12 to 16 girls out this season. A final roster was not available when The Jamestown Sun went to press.
Those girls who do end up playing this year will get a few new experiences this year. Hemmer said the girls have the opportunity to play at Bismarck's Hawktree Golf Course and the Fargo Country Club.
"(Hawktree) is a very cool course," Hemmer said. "I am not looking forward to the walk but if you are going to pick out courses to play in North Dakota, Hawktree is going to be one of them."
The athletes who qualify for the state tournament will be playing at Fargo Country Club.
"That's really fun because these athletes get the chance to play a course that is typically closed to the public and hasn't been part of the golf season in the past," Hemmer said. "It's looking like it will be a really fun season, that's for sure."
