The 2019 George Stevens Academy golf team. By Monique Labbe
The 2019 George Stevens Academy golf team includes, in front from left, Ege Asyali, Emery Leach, Logan Leach and Riley Astbury. In back are John Bakeman, Willi Austin, Duncan Howell, Robbie Bennett and Tony Politano.
Blue Hill—The George Stevens Academy golf team is off to an undefeated start, going 3-0 in matches against Sumner, Bucksport and Deer Isle-Stonington High School.
The team was at Calais on September 11, with results not available at press time.
The Eagles are operating a little differently this season, as standout golfer Percy Zentz graduated in June. Zentz served as the number one golfer for the team during most of his career with GSA, and his absence now leaves room for some of the other golfers to step up into that role.
“I think it actually improves the team structure,” said Ebb Walton, who is co-coaching the team with longtime GSA golf coach Dwayne Carter. “It allows healthy competition between some of the kids that have been playing behind [Zentz]. Replacing Percy is impossible, but the seniors have stepped up and we have a good mix of freshmen.”
Duncan Howell, John Bakeman and Tony Politano make up the senior class, while Robbie Bennett and Logan and Emery Leach are some of the freshmen who have joined the team this year. While Bennett has experience playing the sport, the Leach brothers were new to a golf course before summer.
“I had [Logan and Emery] in PE last year, and I talked to them about playing golf,” said Carter. “Ebb worked with them this summer and it made a huge difference. Two months ago they didn’t even know how to swing a golf club.”
Because the team is less experienced this season, practices have largely been focused around the fundamentals of the sport, as well as getting the golfers to think about yardage, what clubs to use, how to approach a shot, and other basic skills needed in a mentally driven sport.
With only three matches under their belts, Carter said it is a little early to be talking about team and individual state tournaments, but that the trajectory of improvement has been fast tracked so far.
“We’re already seeing them get so much better, and I think if that continues, we could get into a state championship appearance,” said Carter.
The team has a busy schedule on the horizon, with four matches in the next nine days. Two of those matches, one on September 13 and the other on September 20, will be played at home at the Blue Hill Country Club, against Narraguagus and Sumner, respectively.
“We still have a lot to work on, including practicing on some longer courses coming up,” said Walton. “We’d like to see our average score go down a bit as well.”