{"id":4718,"date":"2023-07-30T13:55:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T17:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=4718"},"modified":"2023-07-30T13:58:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T17:58:22","slug":"pettibone-set-to-lead-braves-into-golf-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/30\/pettibone-set-to-lead-braves-into-golf-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Pettibone set to lead Braves into golf season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANE FUELLING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a tale of the young and the old for this year\u2019s Bellmont golf team as a large group of freshmen are ready to take the reins from this year\u2019s senior class, while a pair of young graduates are ready to transition the program from their former coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe averaged a 199 last year and were fourth in the NE8 and fourth at sectional,\u201d says head coach Mike Macke of his Braves, who were unfortunately one spot away from advancing in last year\u2019s state tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Meghan Pettibone was a regional qualifier for the Bellmont Braves last season. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Macke will certainly miss the low scores of his youngest child, Leyna, after she graduated this May, but he long-time coach still returns four of his top six from last season\u2019s competitive team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLosing our #1 (Leyna) will always hurt, but I think we can be competitive and maybe even better than last year,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top returnee for the 2023 Braves is Meghan Pettibone. Now a senior, she is consistently around the bogey mark on most nights and played in last year\u2019s regional as an individual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neck and neck with Leyna Macke all year last year, Pettibone was runner-up in the home Bellmont Invite and was consistent throughout the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another senior on the team will be Abigail Blythe and Macke believes that if she can find the consistency that Pettibone possesses, Blythe, who is fairly new to the game still, can be a solid asset for the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macke also thinks he will see big improvements from another member of the Class of 2024 now that Krosbi Butler has recovered from a knee injury and is ready to play a full season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coach Macke feels that Krosbi Butler has recovered from her knee issues and will be better this year because of it. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look for her to take a step forward for us,\u201d says Macke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addi Johnson got a taste of varsity last year, filling in for a weekend, but Macke feels she is ready to compete for the #5 spot, noting a steady improvement over the summer from the senior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the four senior players on the team, Macke also notes the importance of the girls\u2019 classmate, Vanessa Hebble, who returns to the team as manager. With girls on multiple holes stretched across different golf courses, the coach made sure to recognize her hard work and positive influence on the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only player on this year\u2019s team who is not in grade 12 or 9 is Ella Hockemeyer, who is a sophomore. Playing varsity as a freshman, Hockemeyer averaged a 52 and contended for medalist honors on some nights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four freshmen make up the rest of the team: Morgan Huss, Kinley Martin, Lyla Post and Ava Billman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuss and Martin have played in the Junior program and should be solid JV for us this year,\u201d says Macke. Post and Billman are just taking up the game, but have shown pretty good affinity for it during summer open range practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Macke winds down his career (he is not sure whether this is his last or not), he still has that feeling of excitement heading into a new high school golf season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think top four at conference is an attainable goal. We also look to get back to Regional as a team this year after missing it by just three strokes last year. Having four quality freshmen is also exciting as we keep working for the future. Morgan Ellsworth will be an assistant coach this season and Megan Rickord will also help out. Getting two of our better recent graduates on staff will be very helpful!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braves begin their season with a home invite Tuesday at Cross Creek. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANE FUELLING WZBD.com It\u2019s a tale of the young and the old for this year\u2019s Bellmont golf team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13,15,38,26],"class_list":["post-4718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bellmont","tag-featured","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSC_0913-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1696&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}