Sports with Stile

by Stile Smith

Stile, a senior in Centralia High School's Community Internship Program, has aspirations of becoming a sportswriter after graduating from college. Check back weekly for the latest installment of Stile's column.

Orphan Golfers Look to Continue Success

“I’m a very competitive person myself, and I try to instill that same idea to my players.” That’s what Centralia Orphans golf coach John Sallee described as the key to the Orphans success in 2007.  

The Orphan golfers kicked the season off at the Alton Tip Off Classic where they finished 5^th out of 25 teams. “The last two years we won that. This year I knew it was going to be a little more difficult for us to win. We didn’t have our full team at that stage of the game.” They followed that with a 12^th place finish at Quincy . “ Quincy is probably the next biggest tournament next to the state tournament. A lot of the teams that will be at the state tournament were at Quincy .” The Orphans have since gone undefeated in all dual and triangular matches.  

Coach Sallee, who has been head coach since 1995, talked about the recent history of Orphan golf. “My first year we won one match and lost sixteen. My second year I think we won two matches and lost fifteen. I think the last three years we’ve lost four matches. We’ve turned the program around. We are one of the premier golf teams in Southern Illinois and people outside of Southern Illinois have heard of the Orphans.”  

The 2007 Orphans bring back many of the men who have had varsity success in the past. “Most of these players came into the program with high abilities… That’s kind of been fortunate for me and some of those players are, for example, Michael Fowler, when he was a freshman, won the regional. When he was a freshman, I mean we’re talking a Double A regional where you’ve got sixteen teams in there, and he was the medalist for the day… Then, we’ve got Michael Wright who’s a senior this year. He’s been low man on the team two or three times out of the first five tournaments… Jeffrey Miller’s another example. He’s a junior this year and finished 18^th in state last year. Kenny Evischi played a lot of varsity golf last year. He will again help us out tremendously this year. We have two players that didn’t get much varsity experience, one due to the fact that he was in the 8^th grade, that’s Will Miller. He’s gotten his feet wet at the varsity level. Out of all the players we’ve got, Trevor DeVore probably has the best physique, as far as a golfer.”  

The key to success of the Orphan golfers lie in a two key areas. “Determination, I think, would probably be one factor that’s helped us be successful.” Coach Sallee also pointed to the recent history of Orphan golfers. “Another thing is tradition, like some of the players I’ve had in the past… These kids who are here now were reading about all of these other guys. They didn’t just get interested in golf when they got to high school. I kind of credit a lot of it to some of the past real good players that I’ve had. That’s kind of made some publicity for the team.”  

Coach Sallee described what it will take for the team to make it to state. “There’s always a little luck, because the parity of some of the teams who are going to be involved in the sectional tournament… Some days you have good days, some days you have 3 or 4 kids who have good days and you have another 2 or 3 kids who have a bad day. If we were to happen to run into a combination where the majority of our kids have bad days and the other teams that we were kind of right there with all had good days, we wouldn’t have an opportunity… You have to make good decisions, and you have to be able to play the golf course and maneuver yourself around the golf course. I think that one thing will be our ability. It won’t be that we’re afraid because all these guys have been to the state tournament. There will be a lot of schools we’re competing against that have never been there. We’ve been there, and that’s another thing we’ll have with us, because these guys know what they’re missing if they don’t go back. I think we have the ability to strive and work our way to get back to the state tournament.”

 The Orphan golf season continues Saturday when they journey to Salem . The team has the ability to have a very successful season. They have the maturity along with the skill to make it a long way this season… possibly to the state tournament. A few of the Orphans have made it to state the last few years as individuals, but they look to make it as a team in 2007.

Click here to read Stile's interview with Coach Phil Watson

Click here to read Stile's interview with Coach Ryan Blaha