GCA boys golf looking to break more new ground

Greenwood Christian’s postseason success in boys golf last season isn’t the program’s ultimate ceiling.

Gary Hamilton sees it as the ground floor.

The Cougars fourth-year coach presides over a roster of seven players — four of whom were starters on the Cougars’ first-ever regional qualifier — eager to use the remainder of the regular season to prepare for another run at the state meet.

“Being a school of 162 kids, we don’t get a lot of notice,” said Hamilton, whose 2021 team placed third at the Franklin Sectional and eighth at the Providence Regional. “But just being a small school doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be rewarded for it.”

Hamilton is right about not being noticed; GCA is nowhere to be seen in the state’s top 20. Not this, last or any other week.

Should Greenwood Christian require additional rocket fuel for the upcoming weeks, well, there it is.

“We certainly want to be up there, and want to get that recognition, but we know how good we are and what we’re capable of,” said junior Ian Reed, one the team’s top two players along with senior Sutton Piercefield. “We knew we were going to have four of our five guys returning, but you try not to get comfortable.

“To have a program like (defending state champion) Center Grove so close, it lets us know we’re not where we want to be, which is the best team in the state.”

Piercefield and Reed lead this year’s group, which includes two more postseason holdovers in Coen Bauschek, a sophomore, and Parker Satre, a junior. Senior Noah Cottingim, soph Jonathan Reasoner and freshman Noah Reed have also factored into what the Cougars are accomplishing this spring.

“Everybody has played in matches at some point in time,” Hamilton said. “We don’t have a set lineup. That way I can see how different players handle different situations.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised that they all understand what the big picture is and what are expectations are.”

The expectation is to get back to regional, only this time be among the three lowest-scoring teams and earn a trip to state.

A strengthened regular season schedule helps.

The Cougars earned their first invite to participate in the Trojan Classic at Hickory Stick, and finished fifth out of 18 participating teams with a score of 331. GCA also took fifth in an invitational at Martinsville on Saturday.

Unlike the majority of its opponents, the Greenwood Christian boys golf program is relatively new, this being its 13th year.

However, its gradual ascent has been impressive, from putting only three players on the course in 2010, to fielding a full postseason lineup for the first time in 2014, to last year’s squad making it to regional.

Should the Cougars break more new ground in June with a trip to Prairie View Golf Course in Carmel, no top 20 ranking will be necessary.

The entire state will know.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s on our radar,” Hamilton said. “We’ve got to be better on the bad spring weather days and find a way to make scores each and every hole.”

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Mike Beas
Mike Beas is the Daily Journal's veteran sports reporter. He has been to more than 200 Indiana high schools, including 1990s visits to Zionsville to profile current Boston Celtics GM Brad Stevens, Gary Roosevelt to play eventual Purdue All-American Glenn Robinson in HORSE (didn’t end well) and Seeger to visit the old gym in which Stephanie White, later the coach of the Indiana Fever, honed her skills in pickup games involving her dad and his friends. He can be reached at [email protected].