2016 Year in Review – Middle School and High School Golf

As 2016 draws to a close, Thunder Radio Sports looks back at some of the highlights of the calendar year for each of the 12 prep sports. Today we look back at the highlights from the prep golf teams. Youth was served on the golf teams at Coffee County Middle School and Westwood Middle this season as young players took their lumps early and improved drastically as the spring season progressed. Both teams finished their season at the conference match at Riverbend on May 12th

Thunder Radio reported on their success with the following story we published on May 16th

Christopher Robinson

The Coffee County Middle School and Westwood Middle School golf teams ended their season on Thursday in the conference match at Riverbend.
A pair of undermanned Westwood teams were not able to compete for team crowns but the Rocket and Lady Rocket golfers had several strong showings. For the Lady Rockets, Macie Lawrence shot a 68 on the day for the 7th lowest round of the match. For the Rockets, Christopher Robinson carded a 53 while Nick Johnson was one stroke back at 54. Gavin Prater finished his round in 67 strokes.

Logan Hale

The young Raider and Lady Raider teams struggled to put up low numbers for the most part. Logan Hale shot a 50 for the Red Raiders to lead them to a 5th place finish. Larson Meltzer cared a 62, Xavier Bartley had a 67 and Issac Pauley got around in 76.
The Lady Raiders finished in 3rd place just 6 strokes behind Fayetteville. Olivia Lewis had a 77 while Olivia Howell shot an 81 for Coffee County.

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2016 will go down as the most successful year in the history of the CHS golf program as 5 golfers advance to the state tournament. The Lady Raiders captured a 2^nd place team finish and had a pair of golfers finish in the top 11 for individual scores at state and finished with a record of 60 and 4. The Red Raiders placed 2 golfers in the state tournament for the first time ever as John Parigger and Samuel Prater qualified and finished with a team record of 62 and 16. Nowhere was their combined success so obvious than at the Region 4AAA tournament on September 29^th

Thunder Radio reported on their success with the following story we published on September 30th

CHS Lady Raider golfers with their region tournament plaque. Left to right are: Coach Mike Ray, Sophie Vinson, Savannah Quick, Ashley Gilliam and coach Marshall Gilliam. [Photo by DeMarco Murray – Manchester Times]

Four in a row……..for the 2nd time this week! The Coffee County Central High School Lady Raider golf team qualified for their 4th straight state tournament appearance with their 4th straight Region 4AAA Tournament championship. The region win comes after Coffee County won their 4th straight district championship on Monday. The Red Raiders came up short in their bid to make the state as a team. Samuel Prater and John Parigger both qualified for state as individuals.
Besides being the 4th straight team appearance, 2016 marks the 5th straight year that a Lady Raider golfer will compete at the state tournament. Coffee County outdistanced 2nd place Oakland 139 to 159 as the region winning team score of 5 under par is a new school record. Ashley Gilliam shot the low round of the day for Coffee County as she tamed the 18 hole course in 69 strokes to finish 2nd overall. Savannah Quick was 1 stroke back at 70 to finish 3rd individually and Sophie Vinson carded a 78. Coffee County finishes the season with a team record of 54 and 3 which also sets a new school record for winning percentage.

CHS Red Raider golfers (left to right) John Parigger, Samuel Prater and coach Mike Ray [Photo by DeMarco Murray – Manchester Times]

For the Red Raiders, it was once again the talented Wildcats of Tullahoma that stood in the way of the Raiders first ever region title. Coffee County finished 2nd in the region shooting a 312 to Tullahoma’s 293. Samuel Prater shot the low round of the day for Coffee County as he carded a 76. John Parigger carded a 77. Those finishes were good enough to qualify both of them for the state tournament. Parigger had to win a playoff hole to secure his 2nd straight state tournament bid as the Red Raiders will have a golfer compete at the state meet for the 4th consecutive year. Austin Farris finished with a 79 and Reid Lawrence got around in 80 strokes.
The TSSAA state golf tournament will take place on October 11th and 12th at Manchester’s own WIllowbrook Golf Club. Admission to attend each round is $8 per person and riding carts will NOT be available for spectators. Thunder Radio will keep you updated on tee times daily during the tournament.
For more information, you can check out the TSSAA website at: http://tssaa.org/2016-tssaa-state-golf-championships/

We continue our year in review on Wednesday when we look back at the year in soccer.