The Seymour High School golf team took its next step toward getting back to the state tournament after last season’s disappointing ending in the regional round.
The 2006 Eagles saw their bid to repeat as state tournament representatives disappear when they were ousted from the postseason, finishing one-stroke short of qualifying for the state at the ’06 region tournament held at an Oak Ridge golf course.
The Eagles conducted their annual team tryouts Monday morning at their home course of Creekside Plantation. Head Coach Gary Householder and assistant Lee Ramsey watched intently as veteran members of the squad were joined by just one prospective new member trying to make the team.
“This is the hardest team to make at the school,” said Householder, who also serves as the school’s head football coach and athletics director.
Ramsey said the Eagles are pretty much stocked with veteran players as last year’s squad did not lose any members to graduation. The Eagles’ assistant coach confirmed that typically six players make the squad. Of the six players on the roster, Ramsey said that five are required to compete during competitions with one member left over as a reserve.
During the postseason, or during in-season tourneys, the team-members with the lowest average scores up to that point are the ones allowed to compete.
He said two seniors and four juniors are anticipated to return from last season though not all of them were at Monday’s tryout.
“It’s really a difficult time for a new member to make this golf team,” Ramsey said. “You’re literally talking about three or four of the best (high school aged) players in the state returning from last year on a team, that in my opinion, has a chance to be the best team ever at Seymour High School. They have that kind of potential anyway.”
Ramsey went on to say that although it will be tough for a new member to make the Eagles’ squad, the Lady Eagles tryouts are a different story. He said the team is rather short on numbers when it comes to female team-members.
It takes two girl players on a squad for it to be allowed to compete as a team in competitions.
Maggie Dew is the only Lady Eagles player expected to return but Ramsey said he’s expecting a young lady to join the team as a freshman after playing for the Seymour Middle School team last year.