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New faces dot FHS lineup
Monday evening, less than 48 hour before the 2008 golf season was scheduled to begin, Fauquier High coach Mark Ott stood on the back a golf cart watching tryouts on the Falcons' home course at Stonewall Golf Club.
He saw few familiar faces.
Senior Drew Smith and junior Greg Pappas are the only two returning golfers who regularly contributed to Fauquier's team scores last season, so nobody seems sure what to expect this season.
“That definitely has to be the least familiar [with a team] I’ve been,” Ott said. “Not even having the scores from the only day of tryouts here…It’s hard to tell.”
After having 32 kids try out last season and cutting the team down to 21 golfers, 15 kids showed up Monday and Ott said he’d likely cut that number to 12, in part to keep the FHS squad manageable while practicing at Stonewall during the course's hours of operation.
Ott had to decide the makeup of his team based mostly on Monday’s nine-hole tryout round because, after a practice round on Tuesday, the season begins Wednesday with Curly Licklider Memorial Tournament and the Combs Cup on Thursday and Friday.
“It doesn’t sound fair,” Ott said of the short tryout period, “but it’s you against the course. If you can handle it now you should be able to handle it later in the season.”
Besides Smith and Pappas, few Fauquier players have been in such pressure situations. Junior Chris Drerenberger played in a few tournaments with the varsity team last year and should be a top-six seed this season, but the rest of the six top seeds will be filled with newcomers like sophomore Lisa Combs, who played in girls tournaments for Fauquier in 2007, and Colin Price, who joins the Falcons after the redistricting caused by the addition of Kettle Run High School in Fauquier County. The sophomore was Liberty’s No. 6 seed last season.
Inexperience and unfamiliarity haven't tempered Ott’s initial goals, though. After having his team qualify for regionals in 2005 and 2006 and having individuals Brandon Drerenberger and Tucker Holt qualify last season, Ott hopes for comparable success in 2008...
See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
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