Cottage Grove Boys Golf
Coach Kent Russo goes over grip technique with his team.
The team hits some balls at a recent sunny practice.
Team Rundown:
Team Perspective with Jonny Bench:
More than anything, head coach
Kent Russo is brutally honest about
his team.
“I just let them know that they’re
not good yet. You guys have a long
way to go,” he said. “And they know
– it’s not a secret. They go out and
play with some guys that are decent
and then they know, ‘Oh, I do have
a long way to go.’ You can’t hide it.”
From reminders at practice to the
team-issued schedule that has the
date of the state tournament listed
with the words “no chance” next
to it, there is an air of reality that
is rarely seen on teams. Part of this
stems from the fact that last season
was the first time in eight years the
Lions did not send anyone to the
state tournament.
“This year, we’re starting over…
So these are the experienced guys,”
said Russo pointing to juniors and
seniors on the team. “But their game
is really green. They really haven’t
figured it out yet.”
Russo notes that the way to get
better in golf is to simply constantly
be playing the game. And for high
school students that means grabbing
a friend and spending free time out
at the golf course and just getting
better.
“If you can throw a baseball half-
way decent, you’re always going to
be able to throw a baseball. You can
hit a baseball. You can run track, ob-
viously you might not be as fast if
you take time off, but you can still
do it. This game, if you don’t get to
a particular skill level, you’re never
going to get there unless you work
at it,” he said.
On his history with golf:
I’ve been golfing for a really long
time. My parents started me young.
They actually gave me that little plas-
tic golf set from the Dollar Tree. So
I’d go out in my backyard and do
that. So I’ve been doing this for as
long as I can remember.
And I really started getting into it
once I started the team here at the
high school. Now I’m kind of re-
learning everything over the course
of four years and (Russo) been a
huge help, he’s been a great coach. I
still have a lot to learn.
On how they stack up in league:
I feel like we’re definitely not at the
bottom but we’re not at the top ei-
ther. I don’t think we’re in the middle
either, I think we’re above average
of the other schools. But yeah, who
knows.
On what he’s looking forward to in the up-
coming season:
I’m looking forward to varsity. I’ve
never been on a varsity team. So this
will be my first year and I feel like I
definitely have earned it because I’ve
been playing JV for the other three
years. It’s very exciting. I’ve never
been on varsity for anything. It’s also
scary because you’ve got some pretty
good competitors on varsity, and I
don’t know. We’re working on it.
There’s a lot more matches (on
varsity) and it’s also a lot more com-
petitive. The JV is nice because it’s
pretty relaxed. You’re just going out
to have fun but with the varsity it’s
more competitive.
HAVE A GREAT SEASON!
Aaron M Shumway
Financial Advisor
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GO LIONS!
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Matt Bjornn, ChFC
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Cottage Grove, OR 97424
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