Coaches, years coaching
Head coach: Neil Doose 15th year
Assistant coach: Steve Walker 1st year in St. Peter, 10 years in St. James
Key Players
Kaiden Brovold (12th) Kaiden had a solid 2023 year for the Saints dropping his average to 37.7 per 9-holes. Kaiden made his 3rd straight State AA tournament, finishing 14th in 2021, 6th in 2022, and 29th in 2023. He will be looking for a 4th straight this spring and looking for a top 10 finish. Kaiden finished as medalist in the Big South Conference Tournament, and 5th place at the very tough Section 2AA tournament in New Prague. We will need Kaiden to continue to improve and help his teammates improve in order for the Saints to be more successful this spring.
Blake Magelee (12th). Blake dropped his scoring average last spring from 42 in 2022 to 40 in 2023. Blake made his 1st State AA Tournament last year and finished in 55th place out of 88. That experience should make him hungrier this spring and motivate him to get there again and improve on his place. Blake waas 5th overall in the Big South Conference. Blake's mental game is improving and that is the reason he made it to state last year. This year he will need to improve his shot making and decision making to improve on last year's performance. We will need Blake to work with our younger golfers to help them improve and to help our program.
Anthony Nicolai (12th) dropped his average from 40 to 39 per 9 in 2023. Anthony placed 3rd overall in the Big South Conference and just missed the state tournament for the 2nd year in a row. I know he would like to end his high school career with a trip to state, and he will have to work on his body language and mental mindset while on the course. His work ethic has carried him to becoming one of our team leaders and we will need him to lead by example once again and help his teammates get better and improve.
Korey Lager (12th) scoring average dropped to 41 in his junior year. Korey was all conference as well finishing in 16th place in the Big South Conference. His season low score was 77 and we will need more of that from him in order to reach our team goals. Korey always has a great attitude and really helps his teammates relax and stay focused.
Ethan Moreau (9th) was also all-conference finishing in 13th place out of 81 total golfers. Ethan's scoring average dropped to 42 last spring and we will need him to drop that even lower this spring. Ethan has played a lot of golf in the offseason and that should help a lot. Ethan will have to improve his mental toughness and mindset on the course in order to reach his goals.
Owen Matejcek (10th) finished 39th in the Big South Conference and he dropped his scoring average from 45 to 42 last spring. If he can drop another 2-3 strokes this year, good things can happen for him and the Saints boys team. Owen also has played a lot of golf and has taken some swing training lessons and I am looking forward to seeing how much he has improved. Staying calm and composed on the course will help Owen take big strides this year.
Keep Your Eye On
We have 29 boys signed up this spring and I look forward to all of them improving and maybe pushing the other players for some playing time on either the varsity or JV teams.
12th grader Riley Lager (46) has some varsity experience and we are hoping he will compete for some varsity time as well.
11th graders Charlie Born (58), Evan Walter (56), Nolan Honza (62), Aiden Wohlers (60) and newcomer Johnny Kennedy are juniors we are looking for improvement and helping our JV teams compete.
9th graders Kalvin Barfknecht (50) and newcomers Benton Darge and Henry Peters should help our JV with Kalvin pushing for some varsity time.
8th graders Brek Wachal (49). We are looking for a big step forward from Brek as he played a lot of summer golf and will hopefully help our JV this year. Brady Dunker (55), Brady Dunker (55), Bryce Pettit (58) Andrew Hoag (58) and newcomers Cole Haggenmiller, Rexton Gratton, and Brady Bartelt.
7th graders Isaiah Homrighausen, Abram Madson, Kade Mata, Gus Hulsebus, Cameron Kienlen, Kadan Lehman, Jackson Schoenborn. A few of these 7th graders have played a lot of golf already and we are looking for them to improve daily and for some of them to push for some JV playing time.
2023 Recap
As a team we tied for 1st place in the always tough Big South Conference with Luverne but lost the tiebreaker which came down to the 6th golfer on the team. At the 2AA section tournament, which is one of the toughest AA sections in the state, we finished 3rd behind Holy Family and Southwest Christian.
2024 Season Outlook
I am very excited for the 2024 golf season to get underway. I am hoping for some of our newcomers and younger players to improve greatly this year and help with the depth of our team. We do have a great core of returning golfers with a ton of varsity experience, but talent only takes you so far in the game of golf. We will need to really improve our decision-making, course management, our shot selection, and our mental mindsets while on the course. Improving our short games will also be a difference maker as we strive for our team goals. Our key focus for this team is to develop a much better mindset and the ability to move on from a bad shot or a bad hole much quicker. Having a positive demeanor and showing good body language is a trait that all great golfers are able to do and we need to improve on that and our seniors need to set the example for our younger players. We will need to control what we can control and not focus or worry on the things we cannot control. Our goals as a team have not changed for several years. Our goals are to outwork and improve more than the other teams in our conference and section. If we can do that, we have the talent to win the Big South Conference and Section 2AA. If we can improve in these ways, our 2024 could be a great one for the Saints.
Competition
The favorites in the Big South Conference include Marshall, Luverne, and Fairmont with lots of other teams much improved as well and we also hope to compete for the championship.
As far as Section 2AA, the heavy favorite once again is Holy Family, followed by Southwest Christian, Glencoe-Silver Lake, and Jordan. Once again, we hope to compete with all of these very good teams.
BY THE NUMBERS
29 total golfers in our program
10 returning letterwinners
10 golfers returning with some varsity experience
9 returning golfers averaging under 50 per 9 holes
13 new golfers this year
5 seniors
3 golfers committed to college golf teams
2 returning state qualifying golfers
0 holes in 1 last year
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