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Golf team set for new season
Christopher Behm
Staff Writer
The Quakers will get back into
the swing of things when the new
golf season begins with the Tom
O'Briant Memorial Tournament
on September 13-14. Early indica
tions are that the Quakers will fare
pretty well in their home tourna
ment. But, it is still early enough
in the season that no one, includ
ing Coach Jack Jensen, can be de
finitive on the caliber of team that
will eventually emerge.
If experience is any indication,
the Quakers have a fine team in
deed. In all, there are five golfers
on this year's roster who have par
ticipated in national tournament
play. If the Quakers return to the
tournament this year, as is ex
pected, it will be the third year in
a row for some members of the
team. Last year's team placed six
teenth in the NCAA Division 111
National Tournament. However,
according to Coach Jensen, in the
past these teams "didn't play up to
our capabilities." Since Jensen
continually strives for improve
ment from one year to the next, he
has set the team's sights at improv
Quakers open
with loss
Brett Ayers
Sports Information Director
Guilford opened the 1993 sea
son with a 56-0 non-conference
loss at Lenoir-Rhyne College. The
Quakers fell behind 14-oattheend
of the first quarter, and then trailed
35-0 at the half. Guilford picked
up only 89 yards of total offense,
earning only four first downs in the
game. That number fell short of the
Quakers'school record: They had
just two in last year's 41-0 loss to
Emory & Henry.
The Quakers found little success
on the ground or through the air.
Eleven Guilford runners could
pick up a total of only 79 net yards
on 37 carries. Three Guilford quar
terbacks completed only one pass,
a 10-yarder from freshman Santes
Beatty (Raeford, NC) to freshman
Jim Gambino (Lake Grove, NY)
in the fourth quarter. For the game,
Quakers were one of eight
>assing with two interceptions.
Lenoir-Rhyne, an NCAA Divi
sion II school, amassed 564 yards
of total offense. Three Bear run
ing on the performances in the last
two national tournaments. Thus, he
states that "if we did better than
eleventh this year, it'd probably be
a pretty good year."
It seems as if the Quakers should
have the personnel to improve on
the past Coach Jensen will be ex
pecting strong performances and
leadership from seniors Bryant
Reeser, Brett Thompson, Cannon
Morgan, and lan Downey. Juniors
John Mitchell and Jamie
MacPherson will also be very im
portant Jody Trover, Kevin Sagen,
Chad Evans, and Jamie Gilley are
all sophomores who should con
tribute greatly to the team's suc
cess. Jensen is particularly encour
aged by the performance of Sagen
at last year's tournament, stating
that he "showed a lot of improve
ment." He is also happy with the
play of Gilley, a transfer student,
who Jensen says is "going to be a
pretty good player." Finally, he
states that there are "a couple of
pretty good new players."
As far as competition is con
cerned, Jensen does not seem to
worry very much. Although "75 to
80 percent" of their competition
are larger, Division I schools,
Jensen §ays the Quakers have gen
erally been "able to beat them at
ning backs had 100-yard games.
The Bears held the ball for almost
38 minutes, compared to
Guilford's 22 minutes.
On defense, the Quakers had
three players with seven tackles
each, but all three were in the de
fensive backfield. Safeties Drew
Baker (Fayetteville, NC) and
Jamie Corey (St. Johnbury, VT),
along with linebacker Max
Appleby (Blacksburg, VA) all had
seven, and Baker picked off the
14th interception of his career. He
is now only two away from from
the all-time record at Guilford.
The Quakers had plenty of op
portunities for kickoff returns, and
it was one bright spot for the night.
Dee Rankin (Charlotte, NC) had
five returns for 61 yards, with a
long of 21 yards. Jeff Hatch (East
Greenwich, RI) returned two for
32 yards, and senior JJ. Rogers
(Raleigh, NC) also had two for 30
yards, with a long of 23.
This week, Guilford faces Meth
odist College, fresh off a 16-13 win
over Chowan College. With that
win, the Monarchs broke a 14-
game losing streak, and picked up
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SBport#
GOLF SCHEDULE
September 13-14 Tom O'Briant Memorial The Cardinal C.C.
Greensboro, N.C.
September 20-21 Uwharrie Point-Pfeiffer Badin, N.C.
Invitational
October 4-5 Hargrove Davis Memorial Keith Hills C.C.
Buies Creek, N.C.
October 29-30 ODU Seascape Invitational Seascape G.C.
Kitty Hawk, N.C.
will." This success, he believes, is
due to the fact that golf often gets
overlooked at larger schools.
Whatever the situation, Jensen
will be stressing that his golfers
enjoy the game. In the past, he has
felt that nerves have gotten the
better of some of his teams. As he
states, "in other sports you can get
the jitters out... but in golf you
can't get them out... If you get
angry and try harder, you get
worse." Thus, he sometimes asks
11l
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Rughy team works on fundamentals in preparation for the upcoming season.
Photo by Eric Foreman |||||
only their third win in their four
year football history.
Last year, the Quakers pounded
the Monarchs 38-7 in Fayetteville,
his golfers to slow down and en
joy the scenery, rather than fretting
over missed putts.
The scenery will be an added
bonus to the visiting teams of the
September 13-14 tournament. It
will be held at The Cardinal Coun
try Club, which Coach Jensen calls
a "beautiful course and great re
cruiting tool." The tournament,
which has been set up in a modi
fied Ryder Cup-type format,
should be a challenge for all in
North Carolina. The Guilford de
fense held Methodist to only 69
yards of total offense, a school
record. Most of the Quaker defense
September 3. 1993
volved. Although some of the
larger, Division I programs have
declined to attend (due to an ear
lier starting date than in the past
and the new format), Coach Jensen
and the team are looking forward
to the event. As Jensen states, it is
"their loss" because "this is the
best golf course most of them are
going to play." Hopefully, "their
loss" will be the Quakers' gain and
the start of another successful year
for the Guilford golf program.
returns intact, while the Method
ist roster features only eight upper
classmen on the 100-man list