Clovis golf teams have high hopes

CLOVIS — The Clovis girls golf team is again loaded with potential this season, and that’s probably not good news for the rest of the district.

After all, last year’s potential-laden Clovis team won a district championship. This season’s Lady Wildcats appear right in the mix again.

“We have a shot,” Clovis’ eighth-year head coach Steve Speck said. “If the younger girls can come through and be more consistent, we have a chance to do it again. We were big underdogs last year and pulled it out. There’s nothing to keep us from doing it again.”

The 2017 Lady Wildcats upended everyone in District 2-6A last season, including La Cueva on its home course. The Lady Bears, though, went on to win the state championship, so getting to that next level is another goal for Clovis as the ’18 season begins with Tuesday’s Alien 8 Invitational in Roswell.

The Lady ’Cats boast experience and talent throughout their lineup. Sydni Hill, who began her varsity golf career as an eighth-grader in 2014, is finally a senior, a fifth-year veteran. Hill stood out at volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and will now give it one more go on the links this spring.

“She’s really, really tough and she’s always been playing my 1 or 2 spot, which is even tougher,” Speck said. “She’ll be 1 or 2 again this year.”

Junior Logan Clayton has been on the varsity since her freshman season, and is another Clovis golfer long on talent. “Probably the hardest worker; she works really hard,” Speck said. “She’s been playing in tournaments all year. I’m expecting big things from her.”

Junior Destiny Hodges only started playing golf last year. She came out for the varsity team, made it, and was a factor in Clovis’ district title.

Sophomore Ashley Maldonado took part in several varsity tournaments last year, and spent plenty of time on the course during the fall, trying to improve her game for this season.

Those are the Lady Wildcats’ top four, as of now, the players expected to have big impacts on any Clovis success this spring.

“Sydni and Logan are really consistent,” Speck said. “They’re going to be really dependable. And Destiny, we’ll see if she can be more consistent. She had some really good scores last year, she shot in the 80s sometimes (best score 85), which is amazing with it being the first year she ever played.”

And Speck says Maldonado has great potential, too. “She’s been working really hard in the fall,” he said, “so I expect her to be a lot more consistent this year.”

Also expected to make their presences known are: junior Matti Dosher, who’s playing her first year of varsity golf; sophomore Madaline Howalt, a soccer player in the fall; and junior Electra Laurelez, whose family recently moved to town from Kansas.

When they come together, match after match, when they mesh and grow into a steady team, the Lady Wildcats should be right there come tournament time.

“I’m excited about this year,” Speck said, “because all the girls love to be out there. They work hard and they just like playing, and that is important.”

Back for more

Dale Fullerton took the reins of Clovis’ boys team from his son Cal last year, when the younger Fullerton was hired to replace Eric Roanhaus as the Wildcats’ head football coach.

The elder Fullerton is back for more this season, as is an experience-laden golf team with sky-high potential and lots of versatility.

The Wildcats’ main quintent consists of: senior David Maldonado, junior Kolt Bennett, and seniors Christian Fontanilla, Dakota York and Woody Casey. That’s how they shake out 1 to 5 for now, but each is a talented golfer with a chance for a low round every time out. The first three are especially interchangeable, according to Fullerton.

“The top three are back and forth,” he said. “All three of them at some point during the year will be playing No. 1 if they’re like they were last year. They’re really close.

“And then Dakota and Woody are maybe not to that level, but both of them are capable of playing really well.”

That kind of depth should take Clovis far this season. Team golf is all about getting those collective scores, and the Wildcats have the talent to ring up plenty of low ones.

“Really and truly, if they play like they’re capable of, we should have five, or at least four good scores that we can count on in those tournaments,” Fullerton said. “We can have one of them not play as well as they can if the others play pretty well.”

Clovis finished second to La Cueva in last year’s district tournament, fourth in the state tournament. Those are solid finishes, but obviously short of where the Wildcats want to be. To move up in postseason play, they’ll have to get past some tough competition.

“La Cueva will be good again; they’ll have good kids back,” Fullerton said. “Eldorado is always good, Manzano is always pretty good, Sandia. And then the states, there will be several good teams, so we’ll have to play well. (The Wildcats) are certainly capable of getting a trophy this year.”

It’s just a matter of avoiding disastrous holes enough to turn in solid rounds, and turn in enough of those solid rounds to go on winning streaks.

“Really, right now we’re trying to have consistency,” Fullerton said. “If we can stay away from big numbers on certain holes and kind of get consistent, they ought to have a good year. Putting the holes together and keeping from having very many double bogeys and no triples, stay away from the big numbers. Every one of these kids is capable of having three or four birdies a round.”

The Wildcats, it seems, are a team that can be as good as they want to be, as long as they have the focus from match to match. It’s a team that could be at the start of a memorable season when it tees off Tuesday at Alien 8 Invitational in Roswell.

“It’s a fun group to be around,” Fullerton said. “The kids work hard. The good thing about them, if they don’t play really well they don’t get down on themselves, they just realize that’s a part of golf. Tuesday, we’ll find out where they’re at, but I’m excited. ... I’m really looking forward to the year.”

Schedule

March: 20 — Alien 8 Invitational @ New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, 9 a.m.; 22 — Texico Triangular @ Farwell, 9 a.m.; 27 — Clovis Invitational @ Colonial Park Golf Course, Clovis, 9 a.m.; 29 — Roswell Spring Classic @ Spring River Golf Course, Roswell, 9 a.m.

April: 2 — Artesia Invitational @ Artesia Country Club, Artesia, 9 a.m.; 9 — Leroy Gooch Invitational @ Alto Lakes Country Club, Ruidoso, 9 a.m.; 10 — Leroy Gooch Invitational @ The Links at Sierra Blanca, Ruidoso, 9 a.m.; 16 — Buck Brandon Classic @ Rockwind Community Links, Hobbs, 9 a.m.; 20 — Colt Classic @ New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, 9 a.m.; 24 — Black Murphy @ Lovington, 9 a.m.