Though the switch to the Metro League that made golf a fall sport cost coach Marnie Snyder two of her players who switched to soccer, she isn’t complaining.

In fact, Snyder – who had accepted a position to coach the girls’ JV soccer team midway through last season and planned to step down from her golfing job – was so pleased with the way that things played out that she rescinded her original decision.

“We went from not even having a girls’ golf team to sixth place in the state in two years,” she says. “So I’m happy with my decision to stay with golf. It’s kind of my passion.”

And despite losing Angela Asher-Jacobson to graduation and those two soccer players, Snyder thinks that this team might even be better than last year’s edition when it opens play on Tuesday.

The foremost reason for her optimism is the return of senior Katja Trygg, who placed ninth at state last year and could do even better this time around.

“She’s been steadily shooting around 80 all summer,” says Snyder.

She’s joined by two other holdovers from last year: junior Tiffany Johnson and sophomore Malerie Romero.

Snyder also has four sophomore newcomers: Callie Carver, Martha Swain, Maggie Pettit and Tessa Quigley.

Unlike last year, in which three freshman – literally half the team – had never played golf previously, the girls all have some background in golf.

“We may have a fairly decent team,” Snyder says. “We don’t have to start from scratch. So I’m really looking forward to developing this team.”

The schedule format is simple: For four weeks, the team plays at Wing Point on Tuesdays, then travels to one of three Seattle public courses – West Seattle, Jefferson and Jackson – on Thursdays. After the Metro championships, the girls play in District competition during the last weekend in October. Then they wait. And wait. And wait.

“We have a two-season break before the 3A championships in Yakima in late spring,” Snyder says. “It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out. I just hope that no one who qualifies this fall is in another sport during the spring.”

Boys’ prospects

Bainbridge golfer Matt Kuchin might be forgiven if he’s looking past Monday’s Metro League season-opener to the team’s fourth match of the season.

The five-way match includes O’Dea, which cut him from the golf team when he was enrolled there as a freshman.

Now a senior, Kuchin played in the state tournament last year, and he and freshman Hans Olson lead the Spartans into their first year in the Metro League.

The most obvious change from previous years is that golf is now a fall sport. That creates an odd situation in that qualifiers from the district meet at Wing Point on Oct. 29 must wait seven months for the state championships.

“That’s very unhandy,” says coach Doug Cook. “It’s hard to leave your golf game alone for that long and still compete at a high level.”

But the shift to Metro does confer the benefit of playing on three different Seattle public courses: Jefferson, Jackson and West Seattle.

“It will give our team a more realistic exposure to real life,” Cook says. “Most people in this country play on public courses. So they’ll learn to play in a – shall we say – more boisterous atmosphere, with the public in front of and behind them.

“They’ll appreciate Wing Point a lot more. They don’t fully understand what a wonderful atmosphere they have here.”

Competition for varsity spots will be keener this season, as only five golfers will play in the four away matches because of the pressure from the city courses to get the lower revenue-producing prep golfers on and off as rapidly as possible. The top four scores will count.

“That hurts our program, because it takes away one varsity spot,” Cook notes. “So at home we’ll start six, with the top five counting.”

Though four members of last year’s varsity team have departed – graduation claimed State tournament runnerup Joe Lanza and Kevin Kramer, while Jarett Jorgenson and Liam Maher decided to play football – Cook is optimistic about this year’s team.

“Matt’s continuing to look good,” he says.

And he has high hopes for Olson.

“Hans could be as good as Joe (Lanza),” Cook says. “He played a lot with Joe and has the same great work ethic. I look for him to hold the program together for the next few years.”

Junior James Toepel is likely to be among the top five or six when he recovers from a neck injury. And the play of senior Jay Clark – who came out for the first time last year – has been “a nice surprise,” Cook says.

He likes sophomores Bobby Campbell and Peter Oden. “Bobby has a nice game,” Cook says. “And Peter started last year in the 50’s, then dropped to the mid- and low 40s.”

Cook believes that juniors Jeremy Turner and Jon Conrad, up from last year’s JVs, could also make contributions.

The likelihood of previous JV players stepping up to fill varsity spots underscores the value of that program, Cook maintains.

“It gives competitive experience at a young age,” he explains. “Kids get the feeling of what it’s like to play competitive golf.”

He’s concerned that there are almost no JV programs in Metro.

“Usually,” he says, “they dump the kids beyond the top five onto the par-3 layouts next to the public courses.”

So he’s hard at work, trying to line up JV matches.

And in the meantime, he’s enjoying another of the benefits of playing golf in the fall.

“I have to say that the weather so far has been much better than it is when we usually begin, in February,” he says.