As the end of the school year approaches, the Warren Central boys golf team season has started. With a group of strong seniors graduating last year, the remaining players are stepping into leadership positions and working to recruit new members.
“People say they don't want to do this sport because it's boring or time-consuming, but really, this is one of the hardest sports,” sophomore Owens Peoples said.
Many golfers say they need a welcoming, calming environment to play to the best of their abilities. This environment has been maintained even with all the seniors who have been helping run everything for the last few years being gone.
Senior Noah Hess has taken the role of team captain and does his job of exposing the sport to the school, communicating with the team and being somebody for the team to look up to. Due to a lack of people joining to accommodate the number of seniors, many people on the team have been trying to get more to join.
During the preseason, the golf team has practiced indoors in a place called the Bull-pin before being able to get out onto the course. Although the public can't see them, they are still hard at work.
“We focus on swinging and putting at our practices, improving on form,” senior Nathen Hernandez said.
Although the team is missing a lot of the seniors, the environment is still the same for some, especially newcomers like Hernandez.
“Although they have all played together for a year at least, they make sure to never leave me out and to help me when I'm struggling,” Hernandez said.
For some players like Peoples, the seniors being gone does change the environment, but it doesn't change the end goal, which is to get better.
“I miss the seniors being somebody to look up to and brighten the mood, but without them there's still always somebody to look up to,” Peoples said.
As team captain, Hess tries to make as much time as possible to help his teammates, while also trying to be better himself for the season.
Although the team is thriving, they still hope for more players to come out and make their family bigger in the next few years.
“I think the team will stay about the same size but will keep the same energy that it's always had,” Peoples said.
So no matter what, even if the team is smaller, this will always be a tight-knit group of young individuals that make up Warren Central boys golf.
"I think the team will get bigger because golf is an amazing sport and the team here feels like family away from home,” Hernandez said.