Golf Is Back At Barnum High School

Apr 23, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Barnum boys and girls golf teams are hitting the courses again this spring for the first time in over 20 years. The Bombers were originally scheduled to open their season on Tuesday April 19th in Mahtowa, but was cancelled, postponing the first meet until Thursday at Hinckley.

Last fall the idea was proposed to establish a golf team once again at Barnum High School and initial response was that 24 students initially expressed interest in having a golf team. With the large amount of interested, the Barnum School Board approved the formation of a golf team last November.

The Barnum School district supported a golf team back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s but nobody remembers exactly what happened to the program. So with the approval of the new team the Barnum Golf program was resurrected at the 29 Pines golf course in Mahtowa.

This year’s teams consist of nine boys and girls who started practice in March with Cullen Franek as the head coach of both the boys and girls teams, he will be assisted Rick Baird and Brent Donaldson. All three coaches were players in high school and have had some college experience.

The boys squad will be led by seniors Nate Gunnarson and Mike Klejeski and junior John Zmyslony. Tyler Siltanen is the only 10th grader, while Blake Bonneville, Dacotah Haley, and Ian Higby are three 9th graders on the team; there is one 8th grader Greyson Lekander and 7th grader Elias Konu.

This year’s girls team will be led by junior Kelsey Wickstrom. The rest of team will be rounded out with young players, 9th graders Morgan Donaldson, Kelsey Timm, and Brittany Fanning, and 7th graders Jamie Bird, Jessica Bird, Brandi Lekander, and Geana Guillard.

Head Coach Cullen Franek told Northland Sports Online that “The goals that we as coaches have for our players is to simply have fun and learn a game they can play for the rest of their lives.” Franek also stated “Building a program is a process, and the players are an important part of that process.”

“It’s very early to say how our teams will compete against other schools and frankly, that is not important to us at this point.” Franek mentioned “We are just looking to keep this fun and encourage the kids to do their best throughout.”

The Barnum boys and girls golf teams will be back in action again Tuesday afternoon in a conference meet hosted by Two Harbors High School and will be held at Lakeview national Golf Course in Two Harbors beginning at noon on Tuesday.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com