Morgan Sands was named the golf team’s Most Valuable Player at an awards barbecue held Tuesday, May 31.
Sands, a senior, consistently shot in the 90s for the Huskies this year, and recorded a season- and team-low in the 80s once during the season, Head Coach Ron Moore said.
“This kid put in the work,” Moore said, noting that Sands’ biggest challenge was getting frustrated when things weren’t going right on the course. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself. But he was our best golfer this year, score-wise.
“Morgan was a pleasure coaching. He typically was the first one to practice and the last to leave. And he’d always drag somebody with him.”
Moore said the Huskies “did well” this year, given the challenges of weather, of losing an entire season to COVID and playing a shortened schedule last spring.
“We kind of moved up into the middle of the pack in our district, where, last year and the year before, we were kind of down at the eighth or ninth position – sometimes even a 10th,” Moore said. “We finished fifth in our district this year, so that’s a big step up from where we began.
“The boys knew what they needed to do and they put in the work – most of the time, I would say.
Most Improved Player went to senior Carsen Perry, who was the No. 2 golfer on the team by the end of the season.
Moore said Perry started the year behind where he finished last year’s shortened season, but he was the best golfer on the team at the district tournament, where he shot 94-97-191over the two-day event at Tokatee Golf Club, a few strokes ahead of Sands, who finished 96-98-194, as they led the Huskies to a fifth-place team finish.
“He had a pretty good round at Tokatee for as tough that course is to play,” Moore said.
Freshman Easten Perry received the Coaches Award.
Moore related how, during a season that included “a lot of rain,” Perry was playing at Shadow Hills when Moore spotted him approaching the final hole.
“He looks absolutely miserable,” Moore said, adding that Perry was covered with mud “from head to toe.” Perry, he said, had slipped at the tee box while pulling his cart on the 13th hole and had done a face plant.
“He didn’t call me. He just plugging along, but he was soaking wet.”
He said Perry “persevered through a lot of playing varsity when he wasn’t expected to step up.”
“I think we picked him up on the way to Woodburn when we were playing up there,” Moore said. “Get him out of bed and let’s get ready to get up there. So he went up there and played in the rain for us.”
First-year letters went to Easten Perry and Jacob Silvers.
The lone second-year letter winner was Chet Garrett.
Third-year letter winners were Joey Heimenz and Morgan Sands.
Carson Perry was the sole four-year letter for the boys, joining Bailey Womack on the girls side.
Womack, a senior, was the only girl to play the entire season.
“She battled and she struggled at the beginning of the year,” Moore said. “It’s tough for the girls because they don’t play in as many matches as the boys. It’s hard to schedule and when you get them scheduled, then you have somebody cancel on them.”
He said he took Womack to some boys matches just to give her an opportunity to get more rounds on a course.
He noted that Womack finishes her high school career as a member of the first-ever Sweet Home girls team to make the state tournament, in 2019.