2009 Girls golf season preview
Top golfers - Barrington: Taylor Quinn (Sr.), Kelly Muskat (Jr.), Julie D'Amico (Sr.), Mary Meg Gerbich (Sr.), Jennifer Chung (Sr.); Buffalo Grove: KC Dunne (Jr.) Grace Lil (Fr.), Conant: Kris Yoo (Sr.), Alex Swezey (So.), Kelsey Kramer (Sr.), Stacie Boskelly (Jr.), Sammie Caravette (Jr.); Elk Grove: Rachel Kaim (Jr.); Hersey: Catherine Park (Sr), Megan Rogowski (Jr.), Sarah Jurszak (Sr.); Fremd: Kelly Voigt (Sr.), Madison Zyer (So.); Maine West: Courtney Insoli (Sr.), Doris Hernandez (Sr.), Palatine: June Kim (Jr.), Kelli Burke (Sr.), Alexis Bauer (Jr.); Prospect: Karly Grouwinkel (Sr.), Christine Garmoe (So); Rolling Meadows: Emily Stewart (Jr.), Carmen Angelopolous (Sr.), Schaumburg: Sam Ring (Sr); St. Viator: Abby Dickey (Sr), Kelly Sullivan (Sr.), Hallie Dunn (Sr.), Haley Haworth (Sr.); Wheeling: Brittany Lemke (Sr), Sarah Korecky (Sr)
Last year's MSL meet: Here are the final standings for the 2008 conference meet held at Arlington Lakes in Arlington Heights (dual meet records are in parentheses): Prospect (11-0) 326, Barrington (10-1) 352, Hersey (9-2) 374, Conant (8-3) 379, Fremd (6-5) 389, RM-EG co-op (5-6) 395, Palatine (6-5) 411, Buffalo Grove (5-6) 425, Hoffman Estates (3-8) 437, Schaumburg (2-9) 449.
Back from the Top 15: Ten golfers who finished in the top 15 in the 2008 MSL meet are back this fall: 1st: Taylor Quinn (Bar) 77; 2nd: Karly Grouwinkel (Pro) 79;, 3rd: Kris Woo (Con) 80; T-6th Kelly Voigt (Frd) 86; T-8th: Mary Meg Gerbich (89), T-10: Catherine Park (Hers) 90; T-14th: Kelly Muskat (Bar) 93, Julkie D'Amico (Bar) 93, KC Dunne (BG) 93.
First time on the links: Hoffman Estates all-area basketball forward Megan Bernardoni will be playing golf for the first time this fall. "At some point she probably played," said Hawks coach Fred Bryant, who also serves as a coach in the girls basketball program. "A friend of hers down by the LaSalle-Peru area got her interested. But it's probably been forever since she has picked up a club." But Bernardoni went out for the team during the first week and settled right in. "She probably shot our best score (at Highland Woods) last week," said Bryant, who was also the Hawks head boys basketball coach in the 1980s. "She's just an athlete. I would say she is one of the best female athletes I've coached. And she is so unselfish, probably to a fault, which I believe is a good thing for a team."
She can swing a bat, too: Senior Kelly Voigt was an all-area third baseman for Fremd's third-place state softball team last spring. Now she is one of the area's top golfers. Earlier this week, she played in a special event hosted by the Kid's Golf Foundation at the Aurora Country Club. It was a Junior-Am tournament that teamed junior players like Kelly with top amateurs from the U.S. and Europe. It tied in with the Solheim Cup. Over 100 kids were nominated and Voigt was one of only 9 selected from the Kid's Golf Foundation. "It was awesome," Voigt said. "I played with Kristen Park and I got to meet Nancy Lopez, who was a coach for some of the amateurs I played with."
The Mid-Suburban League dean: Jodi Schoeck begins her 23rd season as Barrington varsity coach. She was the sixth woman to be inducted into the Illinois Coaches Hall of Fame in 2006. Her Fillies have won 11 MSL titles and 12 IHSA regional crowns.
Defending MSL champ: Senior Taylor Quinn, one of five returning all-conference golfers for Barrington, has made it to state two years with the team and last year as an individual. She won the MSL title in 2008 as the Fillies captured the MSL West Division (first year the league crowned East and East champs). The Fillies were second to Prospect in the overall MSL Meet.
Friendly rivals: Barrington coach Jodi Schoeck has a former student and former player coaching in the league. "Christine Pedersen Vlaming (second-year Fremd coach) was a student of mine at Barrington (former Fillies pitching standout who played for Rhode Island)," Schoeck said. "And Megan Teschner (Conant assistant) played for me her senior year at Barrington. It is fantastic to see these women moving up in the coaching ranks. They are top athletes with so much enthusiasm for the game and they are great motivators. Those teams are lucky to have them to learn from every day."
Did you know? Wheeling coach Peggy Ellsworth was the 1984 Daily Herald Athlete of the Year. She starred for Arlington High School in tennis, basketball and softball but in college she took up golf and ended up playing the sport for Southern Illinois University.
"I hope to see improvement all season long from our whole team," Ellsworth said. "The girls seem to be more focused this year in addition to the fact we have some promising new players."
Hardly Dunne yet: Buffalo Grove's K.C. Dunne has already played on an Elite Eight girls basketball team and enjoyed a sophomore softball season in which she collected 62 hits, second best in school history. And that was as a freshman and sophomore. Coach Matt Myers' top returning golfer was a sectional qualifier last year and owned an 18-hole average score of 90. Myers also has a promising freshman in Grace Kil, who won some Illinois Junior Golf Association tournaments this summer.
Snapping second-itis: In his first four years, Prospect coach Jim Hamann's Knights took second place in the MSL meet. But last year, the Knights rose to the top with a score of 326 at the Arlington Lakes Golf Club in Arlington Heights. Hamann has four returning golfers back from the championship squad including MSL runner-up Karly Grouwinkel (senior), who shot a 79. The other three are seniors Terese Geraghty, senior Ellie Texier and sophomore Christine Garmoe. "And we're very excited about our younger players," said Hamann, who has had five golfers in the last three years go on to play college golf. "We should be very competitive again. It should be a lot of fun and some difficult decisions for me to make." The Knights have qualified for five straight sectionals under Hamann and won a regional in 2005. They have missed the state tourney by 2, 3 and 3 strokes respectively the last three years.
Three newcomers: Hersey, Schaumburg and Palatine have new varsity coaches. Michelle Hinojosa takes over at Schaumburg. She is hardly a stranger to the MSL where she was a standout outside hitter for Conant Hall of Fame volleyball coach Peggy Scholten before starring for Illinois State. "It's a rebuilding year," said Hinojosa, a physical education teacher at Schaumburg. "We have six incoming freshmen, six sophomores and one senior (Sam Ring). And our senior is the only girl who has played golf. Bob Murphy, a former head softball coach for Willows Academy in Des Plaines, takes over the Hersey program. A former Rolling Meadows golf captain in 2000, Murphy teaches in the business and computer departments at Hersey. "Our long game is solid," Murphy said. "But we lose a lot of strokes around the green. The girls have worked really hard this summer and I think it is starting to pay off with the short game. If they continue to improve, I don't see why we can't contend in the conference." Jim Nowak, a former head girls and assistant boys golf coach for Jacobs High School, takes over at Palatine, where he is in his seventh year in the math department. The Hoffman Estates and Northern Illinois graduate takes over for Bill Ludwigsen, who retired last spring. "We definitely have potential," Nowak said. "We have five girls who can put up a good score in the low 40s at any time. It just depends on how consistent they can be."
Hoping to do it again: Last fall, St. Viator reached the state tourney as a team for the first time in school history and took seventh. Fourth-year coach Mick Drewes hopes the Lions can repeat that feat with the return of four seniors who played key roles a year ago - Abby Dickey, Kelly Sullivan, Hallie Dunn and Haley Haworth. The Lions graduated their top golfer, Kaela Klune, who placed 13th in the state tourney. Klune is a walk-on golfer for Boston College. "I think we can do it again (get to state) even though we lost our best player," Drewes said. "Hopefully we can offset the loss of Kaela with our four returning seniors. they have been working real hard."
New kids on the block: For the first time in years, Elk Grove will field a girls golf team. Coach Kyle Burritt, a freshman girls basketball coach last winter, will direct the Grenadiers, whose home course is the Fox Run Golf Club in Elk Grove. Burritt, the division head for career and technical education and English Language Leaders, said the Grenadiers will have eight girls on his first varsity roster. "Two of them have golf experience," Burritt said. "So I know we'll take our lumps but we hope to lay a foundation this season."
- John Leusch