Michael Zhang ‘26
Nov 1, 2024
The Blue Storm golf team wrapped up its season earlier this week, one of the toughest in a while after “having lost so many key contributors from last year's squad,” according to Head Coach Doug Smith.
Cam Geirasch ’26 and Jackson McLear ‘27 concurred. “Last year, we had two Division 1 commits. This year, we're kind of in a rebuilding stage,” said Geirasch. McLear added, “One of the main challenges we’ve faced this year is that our team is so young. A lot of the really good players from last year graduated.”
Smith continued, “The season for the boys has been good but we haven't reached the goals we set out for ourselves as individuals yet.”
Gierasch offered his perspective. “The season has been [filled with] lots of ups and downs. Golf is a really difficult game; it’s really important when you fall down to just get back up. We've had days where we've played pretty well, but there's also days when we're not playing very well,” he said, adding, “Also, the mental aspect of golf is really difficult… [but] we’ve always gone into matches with positive attitudes.”
Stewart Allan '27 shared his teammates’ optimism: “The season has been fairly good. We’ve had some pretty good days of practice and some good tournaments, too.”
One aspect of the team that everyone agreed upon was the positive vibes. Smith smiled, “The culture is very strong…. We have a solid team chemistry.”
Again, Gierasch and McLean were in accordance. “We’ve gotten to build a lot of team chemistry. And overall, it’s been a fun season,” said Geirasch. McLear added, “Most importantly, each team member really got to know the others better.”
On Monday, the Blue Storm boys golf team traveled to Radley Run Golf Course for the Pennsylvania independent schools championship tournament.
Gierasch explained his practice regimen leading up to the tourney: “The PAISAA tournament is a season-long process. For me, I've been preparing since the beginning of summer for this; I focused on range work and taking different lessons with coaches.”
“Most of our training for the state tournament was very personalized and individualized. We all worked on the shots that needed the most work on, especially on Sunday. For example, the [players] who needed the most work on putting focused on their putting,” elaborated Allan.
While the results weren’t as the team had hoped, the team feels they can build on their performance.
McLear said, “Golf is a tough sport. Even though we didn’t perform our best on Monday, we gave it our all and tried our best.”
Looking ahead to the spring season and to next fall, Smith said, “Our goals for the season are to simply improve and grow our games. We are very young and are in the process of laying our foundation for the [future]. We know what we can do and we are all committed to achieving the best we can.”
Smith elaborated on the challenges that face Blue Storm golfers: “This is simply the reality of the sport of golf, unless you have a course on campus you have to drive there. In fact it gives us time to talk and come closer as a team,” adding, “We run a very healthy program. Once we get our simulators into a permanent and accessible home we will be all set.”
Senior Ryan Kothari ’26 summed things up: “Obviously as a new team, being in those building phases, we're figuring things out, but it's definitely been an uphill battle. We're doing a good job of making sure everybody's being consistent in our games. But it's been good. I'm excited to see spring term golf.”