![Wesley Chapel Wildcats Head Coach Josh Raskopf and the team with Tien do holding the top score trophy. [Photo Credits: Austyn Szempruch]](https://www.hernandosun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Untitled-35.jpg "Untitled (35)")
Last Tuesday, high school golf teams from across the district (Class 2A, Region 2, District 8) met at Silverthorn Country Club for the right to call themselves district champions. The Wesley Chapel Wildcats would make the most of the inter-county trek as they emerged victorious for the second time in as many years at the competition.
In earning their second straight district title, the Wildcats and the Cypress Creek Coyotes (2nd place) earned the right to advance to the regional round next week at Dub’s Dread. Wesley Chapel also featured the day’s top scorer with Junior Tien do scoring 70.
The team results are listed below:
1- Wesley Chapel Wildcats – 304
2- Cypress Creek Coyotes (Wesley Chapel) – 325
3-Hernando Leopards (Brooksville) – 342
4- Pasco Pirates (Dade City) – 352
5- Zephyrhills Bulldogs +76
The Weeki Wachee Hornets (6th), Springstead Eagles (9th), and the Central Bears (10th) represented the county throughout the rest of the top 10. The Sun caught up with the winning head coach after the tournament:
“It was a gorgeous day,” said Wesley Chapel Head Coach Josh Raskopf. “A lot of fun coming out to play. Everybody kind of came through. The course, you could tell, has gone through some hurricane-type conditions. So, playing on conditions that are like post-hurricane, obviously the rounds weren’t what people were hoping that they would be, but the team stuck in mentally.”
“For us, team is family,” Coach Raskopf said of his team’s mentality. “When you’re having a bad day, the rest of the team comes up around you and helps out. Our number one is dealing with an elbow injury, kind of had an off day, and a couple other guys stepped up into that role. Our number two is coming back from a dislocated knee. During that time, everybody was stepping up to make sure that the team was still kind of firing at a high level. So, that was cool.”
Springstead Eagles Head Coach Matt McGarry noted that one of his seniors, Davie Williams, “made big improvements.” Coach McGarry was proud of Williams and noted the golfer “should be proud of himself.” McGarry noted that Sophomore Hugh Huddleston, despite being the highest placed Eagle at the district tournament, still has room to get better.
To round out his crew, the head coach added that Freshman Bryce Haas is “the best freshman we’ve had in years.” That is quite the billing. No doubt, Coach McGarry is looking forward to Haas’s development on the links heading into his sophomore season.
Despite their narrow miss as a team, one Leopard player, will be advancing individually to the regional tournament. Hernando Head Coach Tyson Ellis is proud of how close his squad was to reaching regionals with their performance on Tuesday.
“[Senior Mason Morgan] had a great day […] Cotton shot well today being a sophomore […] had a good day. Palmer, another senior, had a good day. Austin Knierim and Rhett Williams, they all had good days. I wouldn’t say it was our best day. We’ve shot better, but you’ve got to come out and perform when it matters. As a team, I’m proud of them. They came out, competed, and they did a good job. We were in it. It was close. It was back and forth for a little bit and Cypress got out in the end and they took it. Congratulations to them and Wesley Chapel who won it. Mason, Palmer had a great senior year. Enjoyed it and came out playing some golf this year.”
“Moving forward we just need reps. We need to get out and play. We’ll be young next year. Austin will be our only senior. Cotton [will be a] junior. We’ll have two juniors and a sophomore, and we’ll have freshman coming in. So, we’ll be young next year. So, we just got to get out and play, get out, take advantage of getting around here, playing some holes, and that should help us next year. We got to get out and play.”
Hernando County’s schools will look to gain more experience and progress the development of their younger players in the hopes of advancing next year. As for the two Wesley Chapel-based teams, they will hope to continue on their upward trajectories in Orlando next week.
