Fallon's Kelvin Cann winds up in his swing during the state championship at Parumph.
Tuesday and Wednesday marked the first time the Greenwave varsity boys golf club has been to state as a team since 2011. With the talent left behind, it’s already looking like it won’t be the last.
The boys team finished sixth with a score of 908 in Pahrump Valley after two rounds of 18 holes in the Division I-A state title competition on a par 72 course. The Wave held a brief lead over Boulder City which came in fifth at 894 after coming from behind on day two. The Faith Lutheran Crusaders won the state title at 794, followed by Pahrump in second (829) rivals the Spring Creek Spartans in third (854) and the Elko Indians in fourth (860).
“The course they played was a fairly tough course,” said Fallon coach Rich Evans, commenting the course at Pahrump was very similar to Dayton’s course in Carson City. “It was a challenging course, so I was happy with how the kids did for how tough Pahrump was.”
Wave veterans Raymond Plasse and Kelvin Cann led the team with first-round averages of 89 and 83 respectively, improving to 85 and 81 respectively in round two and a few strokes under par. Mike Richards and Nick Smith tied at 92 in round one, though Richards fell to 91 in round two while Smith rose to 100 along with senior Braxton Hunter, who had a low of 94 in the first round.
Sophomore rookie Chance Wood caught nerves and finished 109 in the first round but fell to 99 in the second round, a pattern Evans said all his golfers fell under when they began to come out of their shells.
“You can’t beat experience when it comes to the nervous factor,” Evans said. “Everybody was nervous, though, not just us. You’ll see the No. 1 team in the North (Spring Creek) blew up terribly. All year they’ve beaten us by more than 50 strokes but this time they only beat us by eight in the first round because of nerves. Chance is a talented but brand-new golfer and nerves got to him where as veterans like Ray and Kelvin weren’t nervous at all. It was jsut another day playing golf for them.”
Greenwave fans know Plasse and Cann from last year’s state tournament where they and Corbin competed in the individual bracket at Truckee. Their experience aside, Evans said he was happy to put things in perspective for his younger golfers.
“We’re going to come out of this better and are going into next year looking to do better,” he said. “The team is moving in the right direction and we’re happy with how everyone is progressing. Now we just need the chance in the off-season. This is one of those sports you have to play in the off-season to get better. You have to be active in this sport all year round.”
The course at Pahrump had its disadvantages according to Evans such as a more event front nine with very little water and an open layout, inverse to the back nine ripe with water hazards and far more difficult than the first half of the course would prepare golfers for.
“What helped us was we got to play the course when we got there on Monday before the state tournament and got the chance to go around the entirety and become familiarized with it. That made a big difference for us since this course had a lot of things which were hidden and a lot of illusions to it. Hidden water, sand bunkers, things you can’t see until you play it. It’s definitely not a grip it and rip it style course, and the kids did a pretty good job of using strategy.”
The Wave boys golf club has seen a steady rise of lowered scores, and Evans said he was happy to see that throughout the season. The definite advantage the Wave has is only one senior, Hunter, will graduate.
“We’re fortunate we’re only losing one whereas Elko is losing four out of their six starters, so that’s going to be a good advantage for us,” Evans said. “We talked about that before the tournament started. I said ‘Braxton, of all the people here today, I want this to be a great day for you because this is it for you.’ He’s a great three-sport athlete and he’s been just a quality individual you hate to say goodbye to, but he’s going to excel at whatever he decides to do in life because he’s that type of person. I’m certain he’ll be successful, and we’re definitely going to miss him.”
With the current talent of Plasse, Cann, Smith, Richards and Wood in addition to a deep bench of junior varsity golfers champing at the bit, Evans said as a team it was great to get the golfers back to state and everyone staying behind got a chance to see they need to do better.
“If we want to be the people who took state under 800, that’s typically what it’s been around the last few years,” he said. “We’ve got some work to so, and these kids are psyched about it. We have some young men who are determined to get better and that should show next year.”