By BUTCH HARMON
After blazing through the conference with an unbeaten record in 2012, led by a strong senior class, the consensus heading into this year was that the Rockford boys golf team would have to do some major rebuilding.
While the Rams did return standout junior A.J. Varekois, a new lineup featuring a group of talented sophomores and freshmen would take some time to gel.
Instead of suffering growing pains this spring, though, the Rockford golfers hit the links running and never looked back. For the second year in a row, the Rockford boys finished the season with a perfect record in the rugged O-K Red Conference. Rockford won every league dual in which it competed and won the midseason and postseason tournaments.
“I knew we had potential, but never in a million years did I think we would go undefeated in the conference again,” coach Eric Cullum said. “They have just scored so well all season.”
Varekois has led the way for the Rams. The talented junior has been one of the premier golfers in the state and capped the league season by winning medalist honors at the O-K Red postseason tournament. Varekois’ main competition at that tournament was his own teammate, sophomore Joel Pietila. They both carded rounds of 75 at the challenging Grand Haven Golf Course before Varekois won medalist honors by winning the first hole of a playoff.
Rockford had four golfers finish in the top 10 at the tournament, as sophomore Michael Cooper placed eighth, and the team’s lone senior, Todd Millar, took 10th.
Varekois was the one veteran starter returning this season, as the Rams graduated four senior starters. One of the top sophomores in the state last season, Varekois gave the Rams a talented player around whom to build this spring. He knew the Rams still had plenty of talent on hand but didn’t quite know how talented the young team was until a league match with Hudsonville. That was when the Rams shot a school record 141 in a 141-175 victory.
Michael Cooper led the Rams with a two under par 34 while Varekois shot a 35, Joel Pietila a 36, and Kevin Kamis a 36.
“I knew we had the potential to have another good team, but I didn’t know just how good we could be until we shot the school record against Hudsonville,” Varekois said. “I knew we had some good young golfers and we had the potential for a big season.”
“I knew we had some good players returning, but they came back even better than last season,” Cullum said. “Some were better than I thought they would be and some improved more than expected. We are looking to just play as well as we can in the postseason. We have nothing to lose, and sometimes it’s better when you play like that and just go out and give it all you have.”