10/07/2026
Thought I’d share a (not so) quick recap of the Sectionals yesterday:
Coming into the season, based off of the work the guys had put in, and off their scores from last year, we thought it could be a special season. Last year, we had Sectionals in Chicago. This year, they redrew the maps (for travel reasons) and I knew we’d be closer to home.
This is both good and bad. It’s good because we don’t have to drive 3.5 hours to play a Sectional, but it’s bad because the quality of teams is much higher in the middle part of the state. So when we saw that we were in a Regional with Teutopolis and Mt. Carmel, both top-5 teams in the state, in addition to teams like Monticello, Williamsville, Pana, and St. Thomas More waiting for us in the Sectional, we thought the road would be much tougher this season than last. Based off of averages and the rankings, we had something like 8 of the top 14 teams in 1A in our Sectional.
Going into yesterday, I thought it would take a score around 308-310 to make it out. Something we’re capable of scoring, but haven’t done before. We thought it would take a special round.
Well, after a slow start from Blake, who was +5 after 2 holes, we thought it might not be our day unless we had some awesome rounds from Kian, Tyler, and Ryan and a steady round from Skyler and Owen. Kian and Tyler both started very strong. Ryan didn’t have his best, but wasn’t playing bad. Skyler was playing steady. And Blake had started to steady himself after the slow start.
We were moving along nicely. I thought, you know, maybe we can do this. But then Tyler made a triple bogey and followed it with 2 bogeys on his next 2 holes. Kian made bogey and then doubled his next hole. We thought at that point we might be done as a team with the level of competition there.
Teutopolis and Williamsville were cruising. However, other teams were also struggling. Mt. Carmel did not have a great round going. Monticello and Pana went off later than us, so while they were leading, we had the advantage of getting our rounds done first and putting pressure on them. After we made the turn to the back nine, I told the guys that we were not out of this, you can do this, and we just needed to string together pars.
The guys responded. We were playing so well for about an hour long stretch. Kian and Tyler were about +6 combined. Just rock solid. Ryan and Skyler were steady. Blake had completely turned his round around and was making par after par. I told Jason, I think we’re going to do it. We kept telling the guys, just finish the round. Pars, pars, pars.
But then we got to our last hole. Blake made par to shoot 81, which means he went +4 on his last 16 holes after being +5 after his first 2 holes. Owen didn’t have his best stuff. Skyler made par to get in at 85, which was our 5th score. Ryan bogeyed to make 82. And then our last two guys had bad holes to finish with Kian’s 77 and Tyler’s 81. I know they were so upset with themselves, but ultimately, still good rounds. With that finish, we and all the kids thought we were going to miss out. Pana only had 3 holes left and had a 9 shot lead on us.
We kept checking the app. They had a 7 shot lead. Then a 6. Then a 4. Then a 2 shot lead. By this point, we were all standing behind 18 watching them all come in. I think I walked a mile from just pacing around. One of their kids made double bogey. Now we’re tied and we owned the tie break due to Skyler’s 85. Then we watch the next 3 kids finish knowing that they needed a birdie to beat us. You wanna talk about stress!!!!
Well, they didn’t make a birdie. There were hugs. Maybe some tears. The rollercoaster of emotions as you go from believing we’re going to do it, to thinking we were done, to another glimmer of hope is just so draining. I think we did the whole cycle twice.
I’ve never been more happy and proud of a group of guys than I was yesterday. They achieved the goal they all had coming into the season. They put in the necessary work to make it happen. I’m talking hours and hours and hours of playing through the summer. Traveling for tournaments. Lessons from professionals. And now they’ll have a memory they’ll cherish forever.
