Coach Jack Stoddard has had plenty of success over the years with the DHS boys’ golf team. But taking on the girls’ squad in 2008 was certainly a challenge for the DMS Physical Education teacher.

By MIKE HALLORAN

Coach Jack Stoddard has had plenty of success over the years with the DHS boys’ golf team. But taking on the girls’ squad in 2008 was certainly a challenge for the DMS Physical Education teacher.{sidebar id=4}

Unfamiliar with the personnel, and quickly realizing the girls needed far more instruction then he was accustomed to, Stoddard was on the horn immediately to several of his friends and fellow teachers looking for assistance.

DHS Girls Golf Team

With the help of John Blake, Richard Henninger, and Tom Benoit, Stoddard put together a solid group of instructors, who not only taught the mechanics of golf to a young team, but also instilled an air of confidence in their play as the season{sidebar id=1} wore on.

All that effort certainly paid off for his team, as they walked off the course in Falmouth on Thursday afternoon with a MA Bay League-South Division championship, courtesy of a 4-2 win over Falmouth.

Led by the solid performances of Colleen O’Connor at #5 and Briana Connolly at #4, the Lady Dragons capped an outstanding week in which they beat three Cape teams to raise their record to 9-1. They now set their sights on the MIAA Team State Championships next Wednesday morning at the Green Harbor Golf Course in Marshfield.

“Colleen really hit the ball solidly and had one of her better rounds (2 pars) of the year, while Connolly pulled out her match in the end to help us get the win and keep her undefeated,” said Stoddard.

Connolly was down a hole as she and Falmouth’s Mary Kate Robinson approached the seventh hole, but the freshman recovered with some outstanding golf over the next few holes to take a 1-up win. In the meantime O’Connor was winning her match, 4 and 2, over Kathleen Sosa.

Meg Wyrtzen at #2 and Emma Kellar at #3 also made major contributions to the win, as Wyrtzen recorded the team’s first birdie of the year on the par-4, 380-yard fifth hole in her 3 and 1 win over Melanie Young, and Kellar kept her undefeated season alive with a 3 and 2 win over Beth Brennan.

Kendall Johnson suffered her first loss of the year at #6 when she fell to Kathleen Robinson, 3 and 2, while senior captain Jenn Geary, who has had to take on the best golfers in the league day-in and day-out in the #1 slot, dropped a 5 and 4 match to Falmouth’s Kelsey Walsh.{sidebar id=6}