Girls golf wraps up season, Anderson retires

Varsity coach leaves, girls end year at sectionals

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Bailey Blum, Assistant Sports Editor

This season is varsity head coach Brad Anderson’s last year with the girls golf team. After 10 years coaching junior varsity and nine for varsity, Anderson is retiring in order to help lead an organization helping disadvantaged people through his church.

“It’s been a wonderful growing experience for me,” Anderson said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to end with. I’m very proud of how they represent LT.”

With the retirement of Anderson, the Athletics Department is looking to fill the new head coaching position for next year. Despite his leaving, Anderson has left the program in much better condition than before and has prepared it for the future, LT Athletics Director John Grundke said.

“He brought stability to the program,” Grundke said. “He created high expectations for the girls, not just for winning and losing but also in their behavior and leadership skills.”

Anderson, an English teacher at LT, is not worried about the future of the program either.

“I don’t think it will have as much of an effect as people think,” Anderson said. “There are seven seniors this year, and a lot of the younger girls don’t know me as well.”

Macy Tabachka ‘15, who has been playing with Anderson since her sophomore year and personally known him since seventh grade, believes that the next coach will have big shoes to fill once next season rolls around.

“He has to be someone we can have fun with, in addition to being a really good coach,” Tabachka said. “I hope the next [coach] can balance the seriousness and the fun too, because that’s what made us love the program so much.”

The team’s season came to a close at regionals on Oct. 7 with a fourth place finish; however only the top three teams advance. Tabachka, Melissa Marston ‘15, Michelle Siamis ‘15 and Grace Baumel ‘15 all qualified as individuals for sectionals, which were held Monday Oct. 13. None of them qualified for state.

“We knew qualifying for state as individuals at sectionals was going to be difficult, but we all played really hard,” Tabachka said. “Even though none of us made it to state, I think we were all proud of the way we played. It was a tough course, and it had a lot of tough competition.”

The team went 8-1 in conference play this season, suffering a loss to Hinsdale Central. Tabachka, Marston, Siamis and Claire Frank-Carr ‘16 were all named All-Conference players. After such stellar play, the team was striving for its fifth consecutive year to state, Anderson said.

“Of course I would have liked to qualify for state, but the four girls played some of the best golf at sectionals that I have ever seen them play,” Anderson said. “More importantly, they dealt with adversity and grew stronger because of it.”

Anderson wasn’t disappointed at the end of his last season.

“This team was filled with great golfers and even better people,” Anderson said. “That’s all a coach can ask for.”