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Sports
Plenty of returnees give reason for optimism : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisPlenty of returnees give reason for optimism
| Oswego East boys' golf team banks on experience
| by Matt Daniels
| 8/19/2010
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Depth isn't a concern.
But finding someone to emerge and take control of that No. 1 scoring slot?
That is a different scenario for the Oswego East boys golf team this fall, according to fourth-year head coach Jason Buckley.
"This year we're fairly deep," Buckley said. "That being said, I don't think we've got that one solid No. 1 player. I think we've got a bunch of guys that are solid No. 2 or 3 guys. That's not a knock on anybody. I think that says a lot about where the program's come and collectively, they've worked very hard together and done a good job of elevating their games."
The Wolves - who opened the season on Tuesday at the Panther Stableford (full results below) - return every significant contributor from the 2009 season, including two seniors in Anthony Linkenheld and Brian Conlee who should shoulder the brunt of the Wolves expectations.
Linkenheld returns after making a Class 3A sectional appearance during his junior year and Conlee is back after earning Southwest Prairie All-Conference accolades last fall.
"It's the same team as last year," Conlee said. "We're just a year older because we didn't have any seniors last year. We're definitely better. We've just got to outscore the other teams now."
Oswego East has a flurry of early-season tournaments in the first week of the season, with the Wolves back on the course Wednesday at The Highlands of Elgin - results unavailable at press time - for the Larkin Invite before taking part at 7:30 a.m. today, Thursday, in the Geneva Invite at Mill Creek Golf Course. Oswego East will then travel to Kishwaukee Country Club at 2:45 p.m. next Monday for the DeKalb Invite.
"It's good to have all the tournaments at the beginning because it gives you that experience factor," Conlee said. "Those 18-hole tournaments playing against a whole bunch of other teams, you just get ready for all the dual meets, especially all the younger players that get moved up to varsity. They get the feeling of walking 18 holes and all the rules and how they need to play."
Oswego East finished 2009 with a 4-6 dual meet record, including a 3-4 showing in the SPC. While Buckley would not admit it last year or say it out loud, he always had one eye geared towards this season, where the Wolves should at least reverse those records.
"I'm really looking forward to the team being more successful than last year," Linkenheld said. "(Hopefully) doing better all together as a team and get more wins, especially conference. Guys had to step up (last year) and take the leadership part. I feel like that helped out. Maybe it was a little early, but you learn and it gave us a lot of learning points."
Along with Conlee and Linkenheld, sophomore Austin Hwang showed significant potential during his freshman campaign and returns. Fellow sophomore Jacob Briscoe could also factor into the scoring mix while the junior class of Dominic Gryz, Dylan Raess, Zach Delli, Andy Jaskolski, Ryan Nally and Billy Warren all should have their chances this year to help out the Wolves.
"We're definitely going to be deeper than we've ever been," Buckley said. "I think one through 10, we're pretty solid. Any given day we can take someone's score. I don't think that was necessarily the case the last couple of years."
While District 308 counterpart Oswego has moved its home matches to Blackberry Oaks Golf Course in Bristol, the Wolves will stay at Fox Bend in Oswego for their home matches.
The Wolves get their first action at Fox Bend at 4 p.m. next Tuesday when they host IMSA in a non-conference dual match. Oswego East will play the Panther Scramble on Aug. 30 before beginning SPC play at cross-town rival Oswego on Aug. 31 at Blackberry.
A jam-packed first two weeks of the season will bring about a challenging September, which will see the Wolves take part in one invitational (Sept. 18 in the Wildcat Invite at Traditions at Chevy Chase) and focus more on league dual matches.
Minooka is the defending conference champion while Plainfield Central and Plainfield North finished one stroke back of the Indians. Buckley said he expects those three schools to again contend for top honors in the SPC, but the Wolves could take some teams by surprise by the time the SPC Meet takes place on Sept. 29 at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
"Brian Conlee and Anthony Linkenheld as seniors, they're obviously going to be the ones that are going to have to carry it," Buckley said. "I don't see any reason why Dominic or Austin can't be leading the way by the end of the year. We've got a lot of guys with potential to play golf at a higher level. I don't know how many teams in the area have that, but we do."
•Notes: Using modified Stableford scoring, Oswego East finished with 97 points on Tuesday, tying for eighth place with Oswego at the 11-team Panther Stableford.
Five points were awarded for an eagle, three points for a birdie, two points for a par and one point for a bogey. Hwang led the Wolves with a 30 while Linkenheld accumulated 23 points. Raess (20), Gryz (19), Briscoe (19) and Conlee (16) also contributed on the day.
Normal West won the event with a score of 128 while Yorkville (115), Normal Community (112), Joliet Catholic (109) and Plainfield North (109) rounded out the top five schools.
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