Moeller Golf: Getting in the Swing of Things
Moeller Golf team tries to find consistency at the halfway point of their roller coaster of a season.
Moeller’s golf team is led by Varsity Captains senior's Zach Lyon and Hayden Fredrick. According to head Crusader golf coach for the last 19 seasons, Dan Dunlap, “The strength of our team comes from our captains Hayden Fredrick and Zach Lyon. Great teams are led by the players, and average teams are led by the coach.” He went on to say that, “Our success depends on the two of them playing well. They know they have that pressure on them, not that we are putting on them, but they know our success lies with them. And they embrace the challenge which is what I love about both.”
The Moeller Golf team experienced great success early on, winning the Oakwood invitational on August 12 with a team score of 292. “Yeah, I was really proud of our guys for winning at Oakwood. A 292 was such a great score, and part of the reason that we won that day wasn’t just because of our senior captains, but we had a sophomore, Aiden Kennedy shoot a 71 as well. Which gave us 3 low scores, which gave us a great win at the start of the season.”
Moeller Golf Practicing in the Rain. (Taken from the Moeller Golf Twitter @MoellerGolf)
Since then, the best team placement was a 2nd place finish at a GCL quad match on August 31. This roller coaster of a season it is important for the leaders of the team to take charge and keep everyone focused on the next shot. According to Dunlap, the biggest challenge for the team moving forward will be maturity, “Our biggest test moving forward will be maturity, you know, maturity in the form of, we got a lot of new guys on the varsity level, so getting over those butterflies. With 8 non-senior golfers on the team, this will be crucial to success. This will challenge the team to work around the nervousness and the anxiousness of playing against the top teams in Ohio. We have to get out of the way of ourselves and let our natural talent take over. When our guys are not thinking our scores or thinking about who they are playing against and just playing the golf course. That is what I try and get our guys to focus on. You know, one shot at a time. We can’t think about holding a trophy after words, winning championships in the future or the hole you just played because you have no control over that. All you can think about is the next shot.”
Before the GCL quad match on September 16th, I caught up with Hayden Fredrick about the upcoming match that day. "I feel that we have a good potential for the younger guys, we got a new crew out there today, but this is my home course and Zach [Lyon] knows it very well and I think that we have good potential playing in the back nine that I think X, Elder and Lasalle aren't prepared for. So I think we can put up a good number and win it."
With OSHAA sectionals taking place at the beginning of October. The Crusaders have time to still find their rhythm before state qualifiers with the Jerome invitational on September 25. You can follow along with the Moeller Golf team through the Moeller Golf team Twitter @MoellerGolf with updates on scores and results.