Sandpoint girls seek storybook ending; boys look for breakout season

SANDPOINT — Practice, practice, practice. That’s what the Sandpoint golf team did all summer long after having last season taken away.

The Bulldogs could have thrown their clubs in the closet, put away their golf shoes and let the disappointment of a forgotten season get to them.

But they didn’t. Instead, Sandpoint attacked the offseason stronger than ever before and the team believes that dedication will be reflected on their scorecards this season.

“All coaches felt a tremendous amount of loss with the spring season last year … so that has created an elevated sense of urgency for this year,” head coach Mike Deprez said.

Senior Harley Wilks wasn’t going to let a pandemic stop him from dropping strokes off his game.

“I knew I had to look at it as a positive,” he said, “and so all the quarantine time that we had, I would just go out on the course and play because if I couldn’t have a season, then I knew I had to get a lot better.”

During the summer, the Bulldogs practiced two times a week. The first was a morning session at the Elks that focused primarily on improving their short game, and the second was an afternoon practice at The Idaho Club.

Summer tournaments and events from Idaho Junior Golf were canceled due to COVID-19, but Mike found a way to get his squad three tournament-level events. Six Bulldogs took part in the Inland Empire PGA Pro-Junior, seven competed in a challenge match against Coeur d’Alene and the whole varsity team played in a mock state tournament at the University of Idaho Golf Course at the end of July.

Sandpoint did as much as they possibly could given the restrictions and Mike hopes that gives the team an edge this spring.

Thanks to the weather in North Idaho, the Bulldogs are typically forced to practice indoors for the entire month of March until courses in the area open up. It’s a unique challenge and one that isn’t very fun for the athletes, but it’s par for the course.

However, for much of the offseason Sandpoint wasn’t sure if they would have a place to practice indoors during the final month of winter.

Mike spent months searching for a location that would fit the Bulldogs’ needs and eventually the perfect place landed right at his feet.

Thanks in part to some connections through the basketball team, Mike was able to discover that Jacob Eldridge had a barn at his home and on the top level of the barn was a homemade basketball court.

The team set up their nets on the second floor of the barn about two weeks ago and has been practicing there ever since.

“We’ll probably be where we are for the next three weeks and that’s OK because mentally we’ll be in that mode,” Mike said about being stuck indoors.

Although, Mike isn’t letting his team off the hook that easy. Due to above average temperatures, some golf courses south of Sandpoint have started to open up and Mike has asked his players to try and make the trip and get a round in over the weekend at The Links Golf Club in Post Falls if they can.

The Links is where the 4A Region 1 championship and state championship will be held this spring, so Mike wants his team to play on the course as frequently as possible.

The Links is a course that is pretty familiar to most of the players on the team, including senior CeCe Deprez. CeCe has played the course dozens of times outside the high school season thanks to her time with Idaho Junior Golf and in golf, being comfortable with a course is essential.

“It is always nice having a home-court advantage, just like any sport,” CeCe said. “But if we win, it's not going to be from our familiarity with the course, but rather our skill level.”

This spring, the girls are eyeing a state title while the boys are hoping to give Lakeland and Moscow a run for their money.

Sandpoint will ease into the season in the first few weeks, but once they get to spring break, Mike said he’s “ringing the dinner bell.”

“We hit the field running extremely aggressively once we come back from spring break,” he said.

One last chance for glory

After capturing third at state in 2019 as sophomores, the Bulldogs’ fearsome five of Annaby Kanning, CeCe Deprez, Camille Neuder, Karsen Granier and Hattie Larson, along with Aly Lish, had hopes of bringing it all home in 2020.

Those aspirations were crushed by the pandemic, but the goal remains the same this season.

“We are not going to let that stop us,” CeCe said. “We want to win and because we are such a close, competitive, supportive team, I believe we can.”

The girls lost Lish, but the rest of the varsity team is back for their senior season. The expectations couldn’t be higher, but they’ve always been that way for this group.

“I think it has been a very big goal for all of us since we were little,” Larson said about winning a state title.

In 2019 when Sandpoint took third at state, the team finished about 25-30 strokes behind the first-place team each day. Mike said he feels like the girls are capable of shaving off those strokes and contending for the championship due to their preparation and play during the offseason.

In early July, Neuder (84), Kanning (90) and Granier (93) all shot personal bests at the Inland Empire PGA Pro-Junior. Mike was impressed with the play of all three, but particularly Granier.

“That’s the Karsen I know,” he said.

Neuder will be bouncing back and forth this season between running distance events for the track team and teeing it up for the golf team.

Despite the occasional scheduling conflict, Mike doesn’t mind being flexible and letting an athlete participate in two sports at once.

“It’s something that I’m very used to because essentially at the end of the day, golf is not the first sport for any of these girls, my daughter included … and I’ve always worked my summers around their other activities,” he said.

Larson knows a thing or two about trying to balance multiple sports at once. Larson has played soccer, basketball and golf throughout her high school career and in the summer, juggling three sports and trying to put equal time into them can be quite difficult.

Because of that, Larson didn’t get as much time on the course as she would have hoped. But when she did, she focused on being more consistent with her irons and driver and tightening up her short game.

“I would say my putting got quite a bit better,” she said.

CeCe said she didn’t have any problems staying motivated after the season was cut woefully short. She never stopped playing over the summer, and working at The Idaho Club certainly made finding a course to play on even easier.

The only thing standing between the Bulldogs and a berth to state this year is Lakeland, and Mike said the Hawks will give his team quite the fight.

But the girls for Sandpoint have a special connection that probably no other team in the state has. The five varsity seniors have been playing together since elementary school and their bond is one that can never be broken.

“Our whole focus throughout our careers has been bettering each other,” Larson said.

This spring will be the end of an era for the Sandpoint golf team before a new pod of girls takes over the squad next season.

Regardless of how this season ends, Larson and CeCe said they will always cherish the memories they made on the golf course with their closest friends.

“I love them so much and they are all amazing in their own way,” CeCe said. “We've been through so much together and I can't wait for this season because it's the last hoorah before we all go to college. The teams are a little tougher this year — so we've heard — but whatever happens at districts and state, the entire experience is worth it because we are all together.”

Closing the gap

In recent years, the boys have struggled keeping pace with district rivals Lakeland and Moscow. They just haven’t been quite competitive enough to challenge either team. But this year could be different.

Wilks, Dawson Owens, Will Hurst, Merek Bauck, Andrew Hernandez and Jacob Gove are all back for the Bulldogs and the team gained two unexpected additions over the summer — seniors Darren Bailey and Connor Bird.

Bailey and Bird had hardly picked up a golf club prior to last April, but now their shooting scores in the mid-80s.

Wilks has always had a close connection with Bailey and prior to the spring season being shut down, he pitched the idea of trying out golf to his friend. But Bailey didn’t catch the bug until he played a round with CeCe and Mike at Mirror Lake in April.

Mike got tired of watching Bailey hit balls every which way, so he adjusted his grip. Bailey ripped his next drive down the middle of the fairway and the rest is history.

“He’s such a smart kid that sometimes all you need is one shot and that was all he needed to kind of be hooked,” Mike said.

After that, Bailey got Bird into the sport and over the summer a fivesome consisting of Wilks, Bailey, Bird, CeCe and Joel Johnson, a 2020 SHS grad, developed. The group couldn’t stay off the golf course and round-by-round Bailey and Bird shaved off strokes. The pair was shooting north of 120 in May, and now they are expected to be key pieces to the Bulldogs success this season.

Owens said it’s amazing that Bailey and Bird were able to drop their scores so quickly.

“They’re both really solid players for the time that they’ve been playing … and I just feel like their games are just going to keep improving throughout the season,” he said.

Wilks took a huge leap over the summer as well. He played six days a week and dropped 15 strokes.

“I think his game is at a different level,” Mike said about Wilks.

Owens and Wilks will be Sandpoint’s top two players this season. They both picked up the game about eight years ago, and they live and breathe the sport. Mike is looking for both players to shoot consistently in the 70s.

Owens believes that is within reach for him after the improvement he saw over the summer.

“We went out pretty often and everything seemed to get a little bit smoother and a little bit more dialed in,” he said.

Mike said it’s hard to know where the boys stack up against Lakeland and Moscow, but they’ll get an idea when they face the Bears in a challenge match toward the end of this month at The Links.

“That will give our boys a good bead on how big of a hill they have to climb to try to be competitive and qualify for state,” he said.

Owens and Wilks are both looking forward to this season and have embraced the opportunity to steer the team toward a district title. Wilks has high hopes this season and is aiming for an individual regional title.

“I’m just so excited to get back on the course and do what I love,” he said.

The Sandpoint golf team opens the season with a warm-up event against Lewiston on Monday at Bryden Canyon Golf Course.