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Golf on par for spring 2002 season

By Lisa Scheller - | Jul 11, 2001

John Bretthauer’s plans have come true.

Monday night, Tonganoxie school board members unanimously approved Bretthauer’s request to start a high school golf team.

Superintendent Richard Erickson told board members that adding golf to the school’s sports program would be a good move.

“I think it’s a lifetime sport and I think there’s a lot of support for it,” Erickson said.

Bretthauer, a THS junior who attended Monday’s board meeting with his parents, Diane and Jerry Bretthauer, said he was excited that board members approved his proposal.

When Bretthauer, who has been golfing since he was 11, realized that other schools in the Kaw Valley League had golf teams, he decided Tonganoxie should have one, too.

So he obtained signatures from about 20 interested students, talked to athletics director John Lee, who helped him gain more information. In May, the young man made a presentation to school board members.

The total estimated cost of the program will be about $6,876, Erickson said.

This will include an estimated $1,836 salary for a coach, $2,840 in travel expenses, $1,200 in greens fees and $1,000 for miscellaneous costs, such as entry fees and meals.

Lee said the high school will start out with a coed team.

“Hopefully, we’ll get quite a few girls out and the next year we can start a girls program,” Lee said.

Erickson said he expected a golf coach would be hired from within the school. And Lee said as soon as a coach is hired, he or she could begin recruiting students.

When the season starts in spring 2002, four or five practices will be held each week and Lee hopes that at least two of those practices can be held at a nearby course.

“We will call around to different golf courses and find the availability and times we can get on,” Lee said. “There’s a lot of unanswered questions on that.”

The other practices can be held on school property, either west of the junior high or on the 80 acres of school-owned property off Evans Road, Lee said.

Although the maximum number of participants on a golf team isn’t specified, only 13 or 14 students can participate in a single meet. Lee said students would rotate so all can participate during the season.