LAND O’ LAKES — The Archers are taking their shots. Now they’re taking smarter ones.
Angeline’s boys golf team has just one senior and several freshmen, many of whom have played for the program since seventh grade. Even so, the Archers are 6-2 and posting lower scores, beating Zephyrhills on Sept. 22, Cypress Creek on Sept. 24 and Land O’ Lakes on Oct. 1. They lost to Sunlake by one stroke, 167-168, on Sept. 23.
Freshman Brennan Hyde, the team’s No. 1 golfer, leads the way. He has shot 35 twice this season, including in the wins over Zephyrhills and Land O’ Lakes.
“I think we have a bunch of young men that have bought into what I’ve wanted to establish here,” coach Johnny Spinelli said. “And we’re talking about starting a program from square one. You see these schools that are known for certain sports, right? (One school) is a football school, this is a baseball school. Obviously, Angeline, we don’t have football. So I came into this job being like, ‘You know what, let’s make this a golf school. Let’s make this a solid golf school.’ That’s what I’ve been preaching to them from the beginning.”
Hyde, Jackson Felix, Haden Wolfe, Daniel Toner, Kaison Barsness, Keegan Price, Sam Davis, Jacob Poole, Michael Herndon and Cayden Karppe have clearly bought in. But Spinelli said what sets this group apart is that it doesn’t take the offseason off.
“A lot of high schoolers, they’ll play their season and then they put the sticks away come November and don’t pick them up till June,” he said. “That’s not the boys I have. They grind in the offseason.”
Many of his players compete in junior golf events and tournaments around the state, enter drive, chip and putt contests, and work with their own swing coaches.
“I have kids that struggled to break 55 last year that are already playing in our lineup, shooting low 40s,” Spinelli said. “They’re just making extreme leaps and bounds.”
Those leaps come in two forms.
The first is physical. As seventh-graders, the Archers couldn’t drive the ball 200 yards. Now most of them hit it 260-plus, which creates more birdie chances.
The second is mental. Spinelli said his golfers are using course layouts to their advantage, playing smarter shots and making better club selections.
“Sometimes you’re on a short course, so you just can’t rip a driver,” Hyde said.
The Archers’ home course this season is Meadow Oaks Golf & Country Club in Hudson, but every road course has its quirks. Land O’ Lakes plays at the notoriously short Groves Golf & Country Club, and Angeline handled it well on Oct. 1, beating the Gators 153-174.
“Everyone’s been putting in the work,” Hyde said. “I feel like everyone’s just doing better because we all bonded. ... I feel like it’s the reason why we’re becoming such a good team in the district — from buying into what coach says.”
Next up is the Sunshine Athletic Conference tournament Oct. 13 at the recently renovated Saddlebrook Golf Club in Wesley Chapel. Angeline has finished 10th among the conference’s public schools each of the past two seasons, and the Archers have made climbing that ladder their goal.
“I don’t want to just get seventh,” Spinelli said.
With six wins and two losses in conference play, he said, he sees no reason a third-, second- or even first-place finish is out of reach.
The West Division last season was dominated by Mitchell and River Ridge, the eventual champion. River Ridge also accounts for the Archers’ highest score this season, a 170 in a 154-170 loss.
After that comes the Class 1A-District 6 tournament Oct. 28 at Seven Springs Golf & Country Club in New Port Richey. Hyde hopes the Archers can make some noise there and perhaps send the program’s first individual to regionals, if not the whole team.
He knows that means taking their shots when they get them.
“I think our goal should be to win districts or conference this year,” he said. “Or get our team to regionals in the future. We just need everyone to stay consistent on our team, and eventually, it’ll come to us.”
