The regular season and the league tournaments finalized the varsity golf season for Clermont County’s teams and individuals. The coaches and returnees for the near future seasons are looking forward to improvement that will help create better success.

Batavia

Batavia swung the best success among Clermont County’s high school varsity boys golf teams. The Bulldogs were the county’s only team to qualify for the move upstate. The Green and White fell just short of extending their season another week by advancing to the state tournament.

Two of the programs excitedly looking forward are Glen Este, a member of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference (FAVC) Buckeye Division, and Milford, currently a member of the Greater Miami Conference. The Eaglers are excited not only about the possibilities of future success, but also about next year becoming a member of the FAVC.

Glen Este

Glen Este was led by junior Chris Sunderman who averaged a nine-hole round of 45.5 strokes. Senior Devin Stanton averaged 45.6 strokes per nine holes. Senior Kyle Sizemore also contributed some good rounds. The other senior leader for the Purple and White was Tyler Hughes.

The Trojan squad consisted of three seniors, two juniors, and one sophomore.

“We had a lot of close matches,” said head coach Butch Novak who also serves as the manager of the White Oak Golf Course near Mount Orab. “We’re still building the program and we’re going in a positive direction to do this. An encouraging sign is the team’s average has improved each year over the last three years.

“I expect us to keep getting better. We’ll have talent coming back. The junior varsity team is all sophomores.”

As a team, the Trojans were 1-8 overall and 1-4 (fifth of six teams) in the FAVC-B. The Trojans win was over Winton Woods’ Warriors.

Milford

Milford has enjoyed a very lengthy and successful tradition. For the past 31 years Doug Kassen has coached the Eagles to one state championship (Division I in 1989) and many other league and tournament titles. Also included among the laurels of the Eagles’ golf program is having one of its own compete as a member of the Professional Golfers Association. Bob Lohr, a member of the Clermont County and Milford High School sports halls of fame graduated from MHS in 1979 and played college golf at Miami (of Ohio) University.

Kassen explained that his current charges “are in a rebuilding stage.”

Senior Glenn McAleenan sported the best nine-hole round average and it amounted to 40.76. The other members of the Red and White were senior Kyle Jones who averaged 41.23, junior Jeremy Nichols 42.06, sophomore Jacob Blosser 44.43, senior Jordan Burger 44.52, freshman Tyler Regueyra 45.85, and Johnny Renz 46.0.

The Red and White varsity roster consisted of three seniors, two juniors, one sophomore, and one freshman.

Kassen was an outstanding prep athlete in his own right. A member of the Amelia High School Sports Hall of Fame, he quarterbacked the unbeaten Baron varsity squad of 1960 that averaged 49 points per game and was the second highest scoring team in Ohio that year.

He concluded, “I expect our future teams to be pretty good. The JV had a winning record. We have a nice group of freshmen and eighth graders, too.”

Amelia

Amelia’s varsity linksmen performed well most of the campaign. The best nine-hole averages for the Barons belonged to senior Eric Fedus at 37.85 (fourth best average in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference Cardinal Division (FAVC-C), senior Ahren Kirschner 40.35 (19th best in the FAVC-C), senior Joshua Kellerman 43.47, sophomore Billy Rhinehart 43.65, senior Chris Pfaffroth 43.65, junior Ben Jackson 45.40, and junior Thomas Watson 45.85.

Ed Jennings, head coach of the Blue and White, expects his program to continue to be very competitive. His charges were 8-3 overall and 2-3 (fourth of six teams) in the FAVC-C.

Glen Este Girls

Glen Este had two golfers who turned in respectable nine-hole round averages – juniors Lauren Smith at 50.50 and Linda Moss at 58.0.

The Purple and White was 2-10 for the season and was seventh among the 11 teams in the combined three division race of the FAVC.

The Glen Este victories came over Indian Hill’s Braves and Northwest’s Knights.