After a month of practice and preparation, the Jefferson City boys golf team is ready to compete.
The Jays will get their first chance today when they play Capital City and Hermann in a triangular at Oak Hills Golf Center starting at 4 p.m.
“You know, just wanting to get started and get the competitive vibes going with these guys,” Jefferson City first-year coach Aaron Murphy said. “We have had a month of practice now and I think everybody is ready to start going and to get some competitive reps going.”
The Jays will have a young roster this season with one senior, three sophomores and two freshmen. The lone senior, Tate Riley, will be taking on a leadership and mentor role for his younger teammates.
“He is going to be very important,” Murphy said. “I have talked to him a little one-on-one and told him I’m going to be looking to him for some senior leadership and just overall guidance to help these guys along as the season goes.”
Sophomore Caleb Tuller is the lone player returning from the five that competed in the district tournament for the Jays last season and is setting high expectations for himself this season.
“I expect a lot from him this season,” Murphy said. “He’s talked to me about some of his aspirations and I have had some conversations with him as well on a one-on-one basis, and he has got some pretty lofty goals. I love that about Caleb. I look for big things from him this year and for the next couple years as well.”
Jefferson City is coming off a season where it did not have a golfer qualify for the state tournament after finishing 13th out of 15 teams in Class 5 District 3. The Jays are making the transition from Class 5 to Class 4 this season and are hoping it can give them the boost needed to get to that next level.
“It is a little bit of a switch,” Murphy said. “Anytime you are playing against the upper schools like that is tough. Experience is huge in this key and the more experience we can get is going to pay us off this year. Hopefully we can peak when district time comes and any kind of competitive experience for us going forward.
“For me, it is just about being consistent. Staying patient and just being positive. We pretty much know what the number is going to be as far as an individual basis. My goal is to get a team through and work our way towards competing at state championships every year, that’s my goal every year in building up the program. If we can just get every guy shooting upper 80s or mid 80s consistently, I think we can get a couple guys through districts and into state.”
The remaining four golfers are sophomores Jackson James and Carson Glaser and freshmen Brandon Miller and Cole Cook.
With a younger roster, Murphy has his team working on fundamentals to get ready for the season.
“Other than this week, we have been pretty fortunate with being able to get out and practice at least four days a week, but we have only been able to get out a couple times this week with weather not cooperating” he said. “Pretty much a lot of our stuff we have been doing is just a lot of basic fundamental stuff. We are doing a lot of drills, a lot of short game stuff and trying to make it as competitive as possible in practice. Basically we are just trying to change the way we go about it and be a little bit more disciplined about how we go about our practices.”