After coming in third place in last year’s state team finals, second-year Nouvel Catholic Central golf head coach Jim Leach is hoping that 2012 can be a state championship-caliber season.
“The kids have set a high goal to win the state tournament this year, like most schools,” the coach said. “The team has made the state tournament the past five years, so they know what it is like to be there.”
The Panthers handily won districts last year and shot a school record 302 in regionals before moving on to the state finals where they shot a two-day total of 643, behind second place Greenhills School (633) and champion Oakland Christian School (622).
Nouvel lost two medalists from last year’s state final team, but it returns Dave Buko (senior, seventh place state finals), Brody Shiller (junior), James Fabiano (sophomore), and newcomers RJ Garber (junior) and Nick Ludka (freshman).
This season, the Panthers won the Larry Judson Tournament at Hunter’s Ridge Golf Course in Howell on March 26, where each member of the team medaled; took fifth at the Bay City Western Invitational at the Bay City Country Club on April 21; and took second at the East Lansing Invitational at Walnut Hills Country Club on April 23.