GOLF
BoysGolf
GirlsGolf
JIM POETSCH/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Seaside golfers Mason Crawford, Mason Shamion, Curtis Kunde, Jackson Kunde and Connor
Merrell following the Gulls’ win at The Dalles.
SEASIDE HIGH SCHOOL
Gulls looking for return
to top on the golf course Gulls girls like where
they stand on the links
Madi Grim, Tristyn McFadden, Sydney Rapp and Caitlin Hillman comprise the 2018 Seaside
girls golf team.
By Gary Henley
Seaside Signal
It’s been a great year for
boys sports at Seaside High
School, with state playoff
appearances in football and
boys soccer, and of course
another state title in basket-
ball.
One team that’s always
competitive: coach Jim Po-
etsch’s boys golf squad.
After winning state titles
in 2014 and 2015, the Gulls
are once again part of the
state championship discus-
sion.
Especially after their
performance in the first two
meets of 2018.
The Gulls came up 20
strokes short of state con-
tender Valley Catholic in a
dual meet March 21, and two
days later, Seaside finished
ahead of a field that included
all 5A schools in The Dalles
Invitational.
If they don’t win a state
title this year, the Gulls will
be right back in the running
in 2019, with most of their
golfers returning.
The leader and lone se-
nior for the varsity is Jack-
son Kunde, who placed ninth
individually in last year’s
district meet.
Rounding out Seaside’s
usual top five are juniors
Connor Merrell, Mason Sha-
mion and Samson Sibony,
along with freshman Curtis
Kunde, who tied his broth-
er Jackson for Seaside’s top
score in The Dalles Invite.
After the loss to the Val-
iants, Poetsch said, “We had
14 double bogeys, two tri-
ples and two quadruples to-
day. If we can turn those into
bogeys, we win this match.
Even with those holes, we
6 • Seagull Pride • Spring 2018
are light years ahead of
where we were at this time
last season.
“All of our returners
scored much better than their
opening scores from a year
ago and our freshman, Curtis
Kunde, was able to get those
first match jitters out of the
way.
“Valley Catholic is a team
I expect to compete for the
state title in May, and they
only got us by 20 on a day
we gave 42 strokes away on
blowup holes. As the season
progresses, we will learn to
limit damage and I expect
we will have a very success-
ful year.”
Junior Mason Crawford
has also seen time with the
varsity, while Seaside’s cur-
rent junior varsity includes
Chris Bodner, Leif DeWin-
ter, Nick Mace and John
Whittle.
By Gary Henley
Seaside Signal
The Seaside girls golf
team enters the 2018 sea-
son in much better shape
than they finished 2017.
Last year, the final tour-
nament of the year for
the Gulls was the district
tourney at Forest Hills, in
which Seaside had only
three scoring golfers (to
qualify for state as a team,
you need at least four).
For now, the Gulls are
back to four. And maybe
five.
Either way, it’s still go-
ing to be a young group for
second-year coach Mike
Verhulst.
Seaside played its first
two tournaments of 2018
with sophomores Caitlin
Hillman and Sydney Rapp,
and freshmen Madi Grimm
and Tristyn McFadden,
who is currently listed as
the Gulls’ No. 1 golfer.
Hillman is the only re-
turner from last season, one
of the three Seaside play-
ers in the Cowapa League
meet and Regionals. Top
golfer Caroline Kotson has
graduated.
Only three of the Cow-
apa schools had four or
more golfers in last year’s
league meet, won by Val-
ley Catholic, ahead of As-
toria and Scappoose.
Oregon Episcopal won
the district meet, which
serves as the qualifying
tournament for state.
“I’m excited to see how
the girls progress through-
out the season, and look for-
ward to continuing to grow
the program,” Verhulst said.
“The girls are eager to move
into league play and get ex-
perience with the new scoring
format for the matches (mod-
ified Stableford). A huge fo-
cus for our program will be
developing our short game.”
And the Gulls may add
one more golfer to the roster
at some point.
“It looks like we may be
adding a fifth golfer to the
mix with a recent out-of-state
transfer student,” Verhulst
said. “We look forward to
adding her into the mix for
league matches.”