With next Monday marking the start of the Manhattan High Varsity boys golf season, the team is beginning to prepare for the new season. This year also marks a stark contrast with previous years because the golf team will have eight golfers competing for Varsity slots at tournaments.

“That eight on Varsity is more than we’ve had in a while,” Varsity coach Brad Ficke said. “Since I’ve coached I think that’s the most kids I’ve kept to practice with me on Varsity. That’s a good sign it means there’s competition for spots within Varsity.”

This team will consist of seniors Tyler Brennan, Drew Casper, Cole Dillon, Dylan Gros and Pierson McAtee, juniors Trever Dillon and Cole Gritton and freshman Chase Dillon.

“I’m really excited especially to play with my brother because only being a freshman, it’s really cool to play with your brother and he’s a senior,” Chase said. “There’s a lot of us trying to qualify for just two spots so I’m just trying to qualify for as many tournaments possible and just do the best I can at every tournament.”

Three of the seniors on the team will also be competing in their fourth year on Varsity, along with a fourth person who competed in State.

“Well three of my guys, this is their fourth year playing Varsity, so this will be their fourth time playing the courses that are on our schedule, our schedule hasn’t changed. I’m super confident in those three seniors who have lettered all three years,” Ficke said. “There’s not going to be anything that’s a surprise to them and they were also part of the State team last year, and then Cole Gritton kind of made the Varsity team at the end of the year and competed at Regionals and State.”

Chase agreed with Ficke about the competition on State.

“I feel pretty good but we’re all pretty solid so it’ll be really interesting how it goes,” Chase said.

The team began practice last week leading into its first tournament.

“We do a lot of work on putting and chipping and ball striking, driving accuracy, basically whatever transfers over to a round to make us successful,” Ficke said. “We try to focus a lot on accuracy especially in short game so lots and lots of putting.”

The J.V. team will compete this afternoon at the Western Hills golf course at Shawnee Heights. The Varsity team will compete at Salina Municipal at the Salina Central Invitation on Monday.