Third time’s still charming: Spartan girls are Metro golf champs

Published 1:30 am Friday, October 28, 2016

The Bainbridge High School girls varsity golf team returned home with the Metro League title for the third time in seven years late last week, having beaten out duffers from Lakeside, Seattle Preparatory, Holy Names Academy and Garfield for the championship.

The ladies last grabbed the top spot in 2012, retaining it for another season after their first win under BHS Head Coach Ian Havill in 2011. The team’s record with Havill at the helm is 68-5-2.

The league tournament took place at Jefferson Park Golf Course in less than ideal conditions.

It was wet. It was cold. It was windy. Playing in a situation like that can be stressful enough even when the championship doesn’t hang in the balance, Havill said.

“You’re going to hit more bad shots in bad weather and you could get affected mentally by that and lose focus and not perform as well,” he explained. “I told the kids, ‘We need to do the opposite.’

“Other teams are going to blow up because of the weather and make excuses when things don’t go their way,” the coach told the team before the start of the match. “We need to realize we are going to possibly shoot higher than we’re used to because of the weather — but that’s it. Not because we’re getting frustrated or losing our focus on what we’re trying to accomplish.”

A tall order, perhaps. But one Havill said he had no doubt the team could fill.

“Probably I was the most proud of that,” he said. “It’s a great group of athletes this year in terms of their work ethic.”

The Spartans were, in fact, way out in front when the dust settled last week, staking a confident claim to the title with a collective score of 49.

Lakeside trailed in second place with 41.5, Seattle Prep sat at third (37), Garfield in fourth place (26.5) and Holy Names at the back of the pack (24).

Individual awards and recognition were also heaped upon the Spartan roster and Coach Havill was named the league’s Girls Coach of the Year.

Three Spartans made the ranks of the Girls Second Team All-League as well: co-captain Kiera Havill, sophomore star Lucy Hanacek and freshman phenom Kendall Havill.

All of the island team finished in the top 25 in the league tournament and they all qualified for the district tournament.

Hanacek led the squad in fifth place overall with a total score of 86.

Kendall Havill was part of a three-way tie for sixth place, finishing the tourney with a score of 88.

The elder Havill sister, Kiera, was nipping at her heels, though. She finished tied for 11th place with fellow Spartan superstar and co-captain Taylor Tye, who both shot 91.

Sara Colley was part of a three-way tie for 18th place (95), and Nicole Daniels shot 98, tying with a Lakeside golfer for the 23rd spot in the standings.

As the scores were tallied and players assigned points, Havill and the team watched as each place was announced with mounting excitement. He said he knew they’d done well, but he didn’t realize just how well at first.

“It was very cool,” he said. “It was like fifth place, then I remember third place was Seattle Prep and then you’re like, ‘OK. I know we’re not in sixth place. We’re in the top two.’”

With two of the team’s top performing players still set to be around for a few seasons, the coach said the future was looking good for the Bainbridge girls golf program.

“On the down side we’ve got three seniors,” Havill said. “They’re good mentors.

“We’ll miss that,” he said of the elder Spartans’ experience and confidence. “But, it is true that Lucy and Kendall are going to be tough. They’re just going to get better. Other teams are surprised at their skill level for their age.”

Regarding his own award and the praise from fellow coaches, Havill said he was flattered and glad to have been so recognized during this season especially, as it’s the only time both his daughters will be on the team together.

Also, he said, it took some of the sting out of his birthday, the big 5-0, which was last Friday.

“Because you’re being recognized by the other coaches it means a lot,” he said. “They have a lot of respect for our program and how it’s run and how we act. So it does feel good to be recognized, but I still see it as our program being recognized.

“You look to the player and see how they conduct themselves and you attribute that to the coach,” he explained. “Typically a coach would say, ‘They’re well-coached. Look how they act. Look how they play.’

“I’ve just tried to work really hard at improving our program since I started,” he added. “I don’t know if I was surprised. I feel like I do a good job and sometimes people notice, sometimes they don’t.”

Havill attributes the strength of the BHS teams, both girls and boys (who claimed the No. 2 spot this season), to a fortuitous combination of community support and peer engagement in which Bainbridge Island is steeped.

“I think it’s not any one thing,” he said, listing the support of the island courses, the involvement of parents and boosters, the storied history of the program and the many great players it has produced, and also the unique combination of group and individual sport that is team golf, as the primary reasons for it’s continued appeal.

In the wake of the championship, R&R was the primary order of the day, said Havill. He’d called for a well-deserved break, at least a short one, before it would come time to assemble the team again and begin prepping for Districts in the spring. The state tournament will then take place in May in Kennewick.

“My goal is to get those same six players who made it into the district tournament hopefully into the state tournament,” the coach said. “We have a pretty good idea of what that means in terms of what they need to shoot and where they currently are so we’re going to try and put together a plan to make that happen.”