With four varsity golfers back, Raiders have high expecations

MEDFORD GOLF PREVIEW

In just a few days, the forecast for playing golf locally went from not possible to likely soon and you can bet the Medford Raiders are more than ready.

Stuck inside for practice since the season opened March 27, the Raiders hit balls outside at Medford Area Middle School for the first time Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and were planning trips to Cadott today, Thursday, and Marshfield Friday for nine-hole intrasquad competitions ahead of the team’s scheduled Tuesday opener at Marshfield, an eight-team 18-hole invitational at RiverEdge Golf Course featuring squads from the Great Northern and Wisconsin Valley Conferences.

Second-year head coach Matt Haase called this week’s weather change “a godsend” and has certainly turned up the team’s anxiousness to get going by a notch or three.

“The last two years we’ve been scheduled to play this 18-hole Marshfield Invitational and it’s been canceled because of weather,” Haase said Tuesday. “All of a sudden (if it’s played) we’d be ahead of schedule.”

The Raiders are coming off a 2022 campaign that included many highlights. Haase earned the GNC’s Coach of the Year award in his first season, the team finished a solid second in the conference behind the Lakeland juggernaut and won the school’s first WIAA Division 2 regional title since 2017.

About the only thing that could’ve gone a little better was the ending as the Raiders fell five strokes shy of having a chance at the second team state qualifying spot out of the Antigo sectional. Freshman Zach Hintz was one shot shy in regulation of qualifying for state individually, and got knocked out in a threeman playoff.

Hintz is one of four returning letter winners to the varsity roster, generating much of the optimism and excitement for the new year to begin.

Junior Connor Lingen is back after earning All-GNC second-team honors last spring, while Hintz and junior Riley Viergutz got honorable mention in league play. Lingen and Hintz were fourth and fifth at the Tomahawk regional and Hintz’s 80 put him in the top five at the sectional.

Also back is senior Lucas Liske who finished 2022 playing his best golf, including a season-best score of 82 while placing 11th at the sectional.

“Last year I thought was going to be one of our best years ever,” said Haase, a 2007 Medford graduate and one of the best golfers in program history. “I knew Lingen was going to continue to get better. Hintz just really impressed me last year. It’s pretty historic to get into a playoff to go to state individually as a freshman. That’s really impressive. That’s ahead of what I did for sure. He’s only going to be a sophomore.

“I know Viergutz is going to get better this year,” Haase said. “He just has to believe in himself, but I know he’s going to get better this year and knock a few strokes off the average. Lingen is going to be really good. He’s into it, he’s got a great attitude. I know Hintz is going to get better. Liske has always been a solid performer. He’s been into it too. We’re looking good.”

Haase said Lingen and Viergutz, in particular, have done some traveling on recent off days to southern locales to get those first holes of the new year in.

The one key loss to graduation that hit Medford was Caleb Heckel, a secondteam member of the All-GNC team last spring with his sixth-place finish in the final standings. His 79 put him sixth in the Tomahawk regional as well.

That leaves one opening on the fiveman varsity lineup for someone to grab.

Haase said the competition for that spot features senior Nick Cipar, junior Aidan Ball and sophomore Evan Fechhelm, but he isn’t counting out sophomore newcomers to the program Grant Neubauer and Alex Wanke.

“I could see it being any of those five guys, which is huge having competition for the fifth spot and then our JV team should be good,” Haase said. “I hope those boys stay fired up and really put some time in to compete here while playing against each other.”

In all, there are 13 players on the roster to start the year as well as two new coaches. Jason Rappe, a familiar coaching name in Medford will lead the JV and the aforementioned Heckel is staying involved and will help out his friends at the varsity level.

“That will be huge just having another guy to help out, having another guy be out on the course, for example, standing on a par-3 and saying ‘hey, this guy came up short you might want to club up,’” Haase said. “You don’t realize it until you’re out there, but it does help out a bunch. He’s tight with all those boys too.” While waiting to get outside, Haase said indoor practices at the middle school featured hitting into a net he has in his classroom and, obviously, working a lot on putting. But he’s been trying to add pressure to that putting. “There’s a couple things that we do almost every day,” he said. “With one, you have to make 10 putts in a row from 5 feet. After the ninth, I make guys call out, ‘hey I’m at nine.’ Then everyone has to watch. He’s at nine. If they want to complete the drill, they have to make 10 in a row. The pressure is on because they have to make the last one or they have to restart. Also they have everyone watching them. You have to build those pressure situations because when you’re in a tournament, it’s times 10 of that.” Another new aspect to the pre-season preparation has been an added focus on physical fitness and Haase said that’s where Rappe’s physical education knowledge comes into play.

“We did running, band stretches and then we did band circuits at the end of every practice, where Rappe ran four or eight different exercises,” Haase said. “Just a little endurance and getting everybody back in shape. In my own experience I felt that when I’ve worked out and when I felt physically fit around the same time I’m competing and playing golf, I feel more kinesthetically aware. I feel more aware of my movement and confident about myself. I feel better. I feel like I can control my body movement better. Once the courses are open we’re not going to have time to keep up with the workouts, but if they want to continue it on their own they can. It builds a little mental toughness. We all have to go through a little bit of struggling.”

The struggle for all GNC squads since 2018 has been keeping up with Lakeland. The Thunderbirds have not lost a GNC competition since Medford won its last title in 2017 and are coming off a fourthplace finish in last spring’s WIAA Division 1 state tournament. The T-Birds lost a couple of key seniors, most notably, two-time GNC Player of the Year Kaeden Nomm, but they remain the team to beat.

“I’m really looking forward to matching up against Lakeland this year,” Haase said. “I know they’ll be tough again, but I think they’re definitely beatable. Jack Rubo I’m going to predict is going to be the Conference Player of the Year. He played in a lot of summer events last year statewide. He hits the ball a long way. He has a lot of resources up there. But as a team I think they’re more beatable than ever, especially with our team. I really hope we can be competitive with them. That’ll fire up the boys.

“With regionals and sectionals, I think we have as good a chance as ever.”

This year’s regional meet will be hosted by Rice Lake and the sectional host is McDonell-Regis with the meet scheduled for May 30 at Lake Wissota Golf Course.

Medford hosts its annual invitational on April 27 at Black River Golf Course and is currently scheduled to host the fifth GNC meet of the spring on May 8, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see the GNC schedule get rearranged as teams to the north wait for the snow to melt.

“The very first day of practice, we said it was 72 days to state basically,” Haase said. “It’s such a short, compact season. We have to give it all we’ve got.”