Mav golfers are young, but have a year of experience under their belt
Patrick Leverton will soon begin his second season as the Anderson County High School golf coach.
He will have youngsters on the course for both the Mavericks and the Lady Mavericks.
The 2023 squads will be young, but both teams will enter the campaign with one more year of experience.
Leverton, who got the job just days before the 2022 season began, has had some time to work with his golfers. They’ve also had some time to play together, both in practice and on their own.
“We struggled a little bit last year,” Leverton said. “My expectation is that we improve over last year. We’re still a young team, but the kids have been playing together and my expectation is that we’re going to improve quite a bit over last year.”
While Anderson County is looking to post better scores in its matches, the improvement begins with competition against each other in practice.
“The kids have been playing together, and that’s good,” said Leverton, who took the reins of the program just one week before the 2022 season began after several seasons as a volunteer assistant.
“The competition will be higher, and the freshmen and sophomores will be competing for playing time.
“We’re excited, and that will push us to become better as individuals and as a team. We have some returning players from last year, and they’ll help the younger players, the freshmen and sophomores.”
The Mavericks and Lady Mavericks will open the season July 24 at Centennial when they take on Powell and Clinton.
For the boys, Craig Patterson is the lone returning senior, and he was a region qualifier last season.
Other returners include Dakota Williams (junior); Peyton Warwick (sophomore); Gavin Drake (sophomore) and Kaden Chadwell (sophomore).
Key newcomers include Preston Vance (sophomore), Hoyt Chadwell (freshman), Luke Baldwin (freshman) and Max Sickau (freshman).
The Lady Mavericks feature returning sophomore Sydney May, who qualified for the region tournament in 2022.
ACHS has two newcomers, as sophomores Addison Bible and Coy Tomlinson join the team and will give the Lady Mavs the opportunity to field a full team.