CARIBOU, Maine — The Vikings golf team opens its regular season schedule Wednesday, Aug. 24, with a veteran roster that includes seven seniors. Second-year coach Nick Blais has set his sights on a winning season.
Caribou will be at Presque Isle Country Club taking on the Shires and the host Wildcats for that debut match. The Vikes compete in the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B league against Presque Isle and several other similar-size schools throughout northern Maine. The PVC championships are set for Sept. 24 at Hermon Meadows Golf Club, with the top three teams and any other team shooting 340 or below qualifying for the state tourney at Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro in October.
“We have a lot of players with many years of experience and I’m confident that we will win quite a few of our regular season matches,” Blais said. “I believe we have the ability to qualify as a team, but this will somewhat depend on our level of competition in our division.
“If we do miss the cut, I certainly have a group of four or five players that I know can qualify as individuals on any given day,” he added.
Caribou’s top three golfers are sophomore Matt Pelletier and seniors Jacob Walton and Avery Thibodeau. Blais said all three have played a lot of golf over the summer “and have the low scores to prove it.”
Right behind them is a talented group that includes sophomores Ty Hunter and Luke Beidelman, junior Lars Spooner and seniors Justin Walton and Griffen McNeal.
“Every one of these young men is very capable of shooting a nine-hole round anywhere between a 44 and 49,” Blais said. “To have this many capable players on the team is truly amazing and it’s great to know that they can help pick each other up when one of them is having a bad day.”
The rest of the team members continue to make strides, according to the coach. Senior Dawson Whitten and junior Alex Belanger have both improved greatly since last year and get better every time out. Seniors Logan Griffeth and Cameron Belanger and freshmen Brady Barnes and Landin Spooner are all showing great promise.
“With a little coaching and consistency, their scores will undoubtedly drop quickly,” Blais said.
The coach said last season was a difficult one due mainly to a two-week school shutdown in late August due to COVID-19.
“It cut our season in half, so we didn’t get to play many matches and didn’t have the consistency we needed to be competitive,” Blais said. “However, we are certainly hoping to improve upon that this year.”
In addition to five away matches, Caribou hosts three regular season matches this season which will be played Aug. 26, Sept. 2 and Sept. 15.
