Tiger girl golfers want sole claim to GSL crown

From our earliest childhood, we’re taught to share, but as the area girls high school golf season starts to get into full swing this month, the Lewis and Clark Tigers are marking this year as the one they win the Greater Spokane League title outright and not share the crown, like last season.

“I expect that these kids will win it again,” said Tigers head coach Bob Lobdell. “I hope we win it outright this year.

“Mead’s awfully good. G-Prep’s awfully good. I think that the three teams are a little bit above everyone else, but this league is so tough, with so many great kids, that any day, any match, it can turn on you.”

“I hope we can win the GSL,” said LC junior Allison Moran. “I think that would be on our horizon and attainable.

“I think that would be one of our main goals. If we make it as far as to state – we placed sixth last year – so to place sixth or better would be a big goal.”

With 11 of their 12 golfers returning, the expectations are big, and the Tigers know the bull’s-eye is on them this year within the GSL.

“There’s always pressure with that, but I think the girls will step up nicely,” said the Tigers’ No. 1 player, junior Molly Fuhs. “I’m not worried. I think we’ll be able to handle that well.

“We’ve been working hard. I think we’ll be a very solid team this year.

“Hopefully we’ll be right up there with Prep and Mead, and U-Hi will be up there, too.”

Fuhs leads a Tigers team that will have its top four players back again this season. Fellow junior Moran returns at No. 2, while senior Nicole Berland and sophomore Katrina Beck are back at Nos. 3 and 4. Courtney Alfano and Kylee Graham step into the No. 5 and 6 slots this year, but seniors Casey Brown, Molly D’Arenzo and Lindsay Larson will also be seeing time in the top 6 as well.

“The kids know they have to play hard every day, or else somebody else might move into their spot,” Lobdell said. “In fact, every nonleague tournament, I enter two teams to try to find out who’s the most competitive.

“I think they realize they have to play their best, or someone else is going to step in there for them. It makes it a great team concept because everyone makes us better.”

While the competition for individual playing time will be heated, the Tigers know team chemistry will be essential in winning the league crown again this season.

“Our team dynamics are amazing,” Fuhs said. “We all get along so well.

“We love to go to tournaments. We have an excellent time. We’ve all played together.

“Ally Moran and I are both two-sport athletes. We play volleyball. Katrina Beck plays basketball, so we’ve all seen each other, and we come back and play together in school golf.

“We have a blast. There’s friendly competition, but nobody’s worried, because we have total faith in each other, and that’s really how it is.”

“I never thought of golf as a team sport until we were good,” Moran said. “At practices, we’ll have days we just work on putting so everybody can eliminate the three-putts.

“We have playoffs so the best players can be playing the 5 and 6 spots, so that gets everyone to play better to help the team out.”

Golf is fundamentally an individual sport, and the Tigers’ best hopes to repeat lie with the play of their top two players – Fuhs and Moran.

“They’ve improved greatly,” Lobdell said. “Of course, when you go from sophomores to juniors, the maturity level really shows through. They both played a lot of golf over the summer, and they’ve also spent a lot of time over the winter working on stuff.”

The Tigers also will have the incentive to send their coach out on a winning note, as Lobdell will retire after this, his 33rd year, at the Tigers’ helm.

“I’ve been through a lot, but I’m excited for the kids. They know my expectations of them. As I told them, if they play hard and play smart and still get beat, they got beat by a better team that day, and they understand that.

“We don’t try to put any extra pressure on any of the players 1 through 6, because you never know who’s going to win it for you.”

“We want to make him look good,” Fuhs said. “He’s an amazing coach. He is an excellent coach.

“It’s so much fun being around Bob. He knows what he’s doing, and he knows how to handle everyone.

“Making him happy is just the best thing. He was so happy when we went to state last year, and we really want to get to state this year.

“We really want to please Bob because this is his last year. We really want to go out with a bang.”