Losing the likes of Ciara Feldman, Bella Russell, Emily Hass and two-time state qualifier Kassy Vest would be a tough break for any team, but Bobcat golf head coach Lucas Johnson said he has a team full of young talent ready to pick up right where last year left off.

“This is a crew that we’ve had together for really the last two years, so even though we are a team that’s very freshman and sophomore heavy, these are girls that have been practicing together for now a third year in a row,” Johnson said. “It feels like a young squad and yet it doesn’t because we took advantage of that seventh-and-eighth-grade rule, so that’s been beneficial. It doesn’t feel like we are starting from scratch.”

In a juxtaposition from last season’s senior-laden squad, the 2019 MHS girls golf team won’t have any seniors swinging clubs. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some experience on the links, however, as at the top of the returning list is sophomore Kyra Feldman, who competed as the No. 2 for much of last season, and Johnson said she has a chance to make some big moves this year.

“She’s a very consistent player, she is someone last year I think learned a lot about how to score and how to manage rounds,” Johnson said of Feldman. “When she didn’t necessarily have her best game off the tee or the fairway, she used her short game to score well.”

Amber Henson

Feldman had the second-best 18-hole average on the team last year at 98.2, and her season-low nine-hole round of 47 was third-best on the team.

Joining Feldman in the top two for the squad is actually a newcomer in freshman Amber Henson. Though Henson has yet to compete on the high school circuit, she is no stranger to competition. She was crowned as the youngest-ever women’s champion of the annual Times-Republican City Golf Tournament, winning last summer at the age of 14, and Johnson said that’s just a glimpse of the potential Henson has.

“She has played in an awful lot of junior tournaments, she probably uses the summer as well as anyone on the team to continue to get better,” Johnson said. “She’s someone who we have been watching for a long time, knowing she was going to come up and contribute at the high school level.”

For the last three seasons, Kassy Vest has been the leading scorer for the Marshalltown girls. Johnson said there is no real way to make up for what Vest did in her time as a Bobcat, but Feldman and Henson have the potential to follow in her footsteps.

“It’s tough to make up for someone like Kassy Vest, who was a two-time state qualifier and is playing golf right now for Iowa Western and doing well for them,” he said. “We had a very similar squad of last year’s departing seniors to this year’s freshmen and sophomores, it’s kind of a reload of talent that was coming through at the right time and they are going to get a lot of opportunities to grow.”

With Feldman and Henson in the top positions, Johnson said the next tier are his two juniors in Emma Younkin and Taylor Naughton.

“They have both gotten quite a bit of varsity experience in the last couple of years, mostly in that five and six spot,” Johnson said of the junior duo. “Now it’s a chance for them to move up, hopefully they look forward to that opportunity to shoot a counting score. I think they have the capability to shoot those rounds in the low 50’s, which is where we want to be.”

Last year the Marshalltown girls placed fourth at their regional meet with a 386, only five strokes out of third place. Johnson said if his top four can develop as he expects them to, they could not only match that performance but possibly exceed it.

“By the end of last year we were in the conversation, we had girls who could have put together a round to get us there but we came up a little bit short,” he said. “That’s kind of what we look at, and for us to even think about that with a group as young as we are is a great sign not only for this year but knowing we will be able to keep this crew together for another three or four years.”

Filling out the rest of the varsity roster are a couple of girls who might be on a bit of a rotation, Johnson said. Freshmen Norah Wilson and Brynn Van Buren are both girls Johnson said have potential and could contribute early on due to their experience competing in junior tournaments, and freshman Sydney Faltys is also someone Johnson said could develop into a solid scorer.

“It’s going to be a lot about battling through those early growing pains that come with being a freshman,” Johnson said. “You know there’s going to be inconsistency and that’s what we try to talk about as coaches, being able to shake off the battle or a bad shot and knowing that the path to success isn’t always going to be a straight line. There’s going to be zigs and zags, ebbs and flows and that’s kind of where we are at.”

For the last two years there’s been some Marshalltown representation at the Class 4A state meet with vest as an individual qualifier, and Johnson said even if his team isn’t able to make it to state both Feldman and Henson can keep the qualifier run going.

“From an individual perspective, Kyra and Amber have it in their goalset to bring their play to a level to be in a conversation to qualify for a state tournament,” he said. “They have the ability, I think that is well within their realm. To go to state is usually an 80 to 85 round as an individual, and they have that ability.”

The Marshalltown girls golf team starts the 2019 season on Tuesday at home with a dual against Waukee at the American Legion Memorial Golf Course, starting at 3:30 p.m.