ARCANUM – Over the last four years there have been just two ladies golf teams who have won a WOAC league championship. Tri-Village won in 2021, 2022 and Arcanum in 2023, 2024.
In all four years these two teams battled it out till the end … but both were hit hard by graduation. In fact, Arcanum graduated almost their entire team last year and Tri-Village’s most acclaimed golfer in school history also graduated and is now playing IU East.
So, if there was to be a glimmer of hope for other WOAC teams to gain a title, the 2025 season might just be the one.
But to the chagrin of the other teams and just one week left in the regular season before the season ending league tournament both Tri-Village and Arcanum are still at the top battling it out for supremacy in the conference.
Current Girls Standings
TEAMS WOAC OVERALL
Tri-Village 6 – 0 8 – 0
Arcanum 4 – 2 6 – 2
Ansonia 3 – 3 4 – 8
National Trail 2 – 2 4 – 4
Mississinawa Valley 2 – 2 2 – 2
Dixie 0 – 3 0 – 5
Franklin Monroe 0 – 5 0 – 7
Arcanum graduated 4 seniors from their championship team and two time WOAC Golf “Coach of the Year” Andrew Bryant needed to step away from coaching due to military obligations he had to fulfill.
Athletic Director Abbey Moore would need to fill his spot in the interim and approached Jesse Warner a Franklin Monroe graduate and now an educator at Arcanum to see if he would be willing to take over the program.
“I think it was back in April when Abbey said, hey, we need somebody to do girls’ golf are you interested? So, me being a teacher and having worked at a golf course for six years and been around golf a lot in the summer I thought I’d give it a try,” Coach Jesse Warner said.
“I didn’t think we were going to have a full team and maybe we would get three girls, with just one player returning in Adalyn Paul, but then we had three cross country kids, Ella Warren, Sadie Waldo and Brynn Byers who decided they wanted to do both. Brooklyn Eley a cheerleader also decided she wanted to do both, and they’ve loved it,” Warner stated.
“My goal this year was to make it fun and hope they get to love the game of golf, because it can be very frustrating at times. I think coaching girls is great because they are so willing to try things and make changes to their swing, so it’s been easy to coach them.”
“The best part about having freshmen and sophomores who have never played, they don’t have all the bad swing thoughts where you can fix small things here and there, just to get them having a little bit more success. And I think our scoring average from beginning of the year where we were shooting 230s in our invitationals for nine holes, and now we’ve gotten it down to about 215 and lower … so we’ve shaved a lot of strokes off, which is all because they want to get better and they’re willing to put the work in,” Warner explained.
Warner was pleased with the way his team competed in their first head-to-head match-up with Tri-Village a week ago falling by just one stroke. The two teams met again on Tuesday with the Patriots prevailing again this time by 7 strokes.
Coach Warner talked about his line-up and how they have been playing this year.
“Adalyn Paul is our only returning player, a junior and mid to upper 40s golfer, she has been playing the one spot and our most consistent golfer all year.”
“Ella Warren has been our two and her scoring average right now is 53, she had a round last week in National Trail playing lights out with a 46.”
“Brooklynn Ely has been our three and for being somebody who’s new to the game and a cheerleader has been 53, 54, 55, she’s had some really good scores for us.”
“Sadie Waldo is our four, she started the year actually as our six and has put a lot of work in this year and gotten much better to move all the way up to our four.”
“Meridith Laux decided she wanted to pick up golf in her senior year, and she’s had some good rounds for us and is playing the five spot.
“Brynn Byers who is one of our cross-country kids is playing the six spot and was strong at the beginning of the year, so we’re trying to channel the beginning of year into her game of late.”
“Genevieve Dues is another first-year player who came in having no golf experience, wanted to learn and is playing the seven spot. She has started hitting the ball a little better, getting some good rounds underneath her,” Warner commented.
Going from just one golfer to seven this year is a huge step forward for Warner and he’s long on his way to building back the program.
“I wanted to build back the program … and get the girls to fall in love with game and come back next year. If they do that then, I’ve done my job,” Warner concluded.
Tri-Village has a similar story to that of Arcanum after graduating 3 seniors they were left with just two sophomores on the roster heading into 2025.
Returning for the Patriots were Addie Pipenger and Kaytie Lytle both juniors. The Patriots picked up freshman Annabeck Spencer, Abby Hampton, Taytum Gray and Lyla Brewer along with sophomore Kash Mead.
Lyla Brewer is the younger sister of Reagan Brewer who is now at IU East along with Annabeck Spencer, both playing above their years for the Patriots. In fact, Brewer is first in the conference for scoring average and Spencer is 6th overall. Taytum Gray is 7th, Addie Pipenger is 8th and Kash Mead 9th helping lead the Patriots to their 8-0 record thus far.
Tri-Village coach Lee Morris believe the success they have had is due to the hard work the girls put in and the perfect weather to play golf in.
“I think we are definitely getting better, we have a few kids who got bit by the golf bug early in the year, and they’ve played quite a bit. When just starting out, and not having played very much, it’s easy to get better quicker, as opposed to just trying to hone on specific things,” Morris said.
“The improvements our kids have seen, they’ve liked and that’s been very helpful along with having one of the best weather golf seasons we’ve ever experienced. I’ve been doing this a long time, when you’re not out here and it’s 90 degrees, or it’s 45 degrees and the wind blowing, it’s really helpful. We’ve been very fortunate as far as weather goes,” Morris added.
When I asked about their match-up with Arcanum, Morris was glad to see both teams competing again and gave credit to the Trojans for being able to put a competitive team together this year.
“Yeah, they just had the Paul girl as their only returner, they were worried about even being able to potentially field a team. So, for them to be able to go out and find some kids, some doubling up on sports, which small schools need to do. You’ve got to have that, we have a young lady who’s playing both volleyball and golf, and a young lady who is involved in cheer while playing golf as well. You just kind of have to keep working with other people in order to get kids the opportunities they’re seeking,” Morris offered up
“So, we’ve had a couple nice matches with them so far and I think our girls have enjoyed playing with them, so that’s a good thing,” Morris remarked.
“Obviously we want to win … but the whole golf experience goes beyond that,” Morris added.
“I’ve shared with the girls if you stick with this for four years of high school, there’s a really good chance you could potentially, one day in a business setting, be the number one draft pick for your office golf scramble,”
“I want the girls to enjoy the game and have fun and after school you could be a good player. But for now, the game is something many are just being introduced to … but it is something they can do for a long time, not just for four years of high school,” Morris concluded.
But that might seem a long time down the road and so for now Tri-Village’s focus is on the WOAC Championships. The Patriots control their own destiny when all the league teams play 18 holes on Wednesday September 17th at the Richmond Elks golf club.
One thing you can count on, Arcanum will be there to challenge them once again.
