Central Mountain golfers look to continued success
By John Lipez
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – There is one Central Mountain sports team that quietly has had a long, long run of success. That would be the Wildcat golf team under the direction of veteran coach John Lodek. And with most of last year’s squad returning, 2023 should be another banner year.
Coach Lodek told The Record the success of the program in recent years is “due to the great student golfers I have been lucky enough to work with and their dedication to becoming better golfers each year.” The Wildcats return five of their top six from a season ago and, according to the coach, “We have many great young up and coming golfers that are competing to be in the starting lineup.” Add it all up and it’s a squad of 20 members, including four girls. With the senior leadership of returning starters Gardner Fravel and Griffin Walizer, the coach said, “We have very high expectations for this coming season.”
With four girls on the team, coach Lodek said it “would be great to eventually work towards having a girls’ team.” In the meantime, “I hope to continue to grow the sport of golf at Central Mountain and have as many students as possible experience this great lifelong sport.”
The coach encouraged the public to come out to their home Clinton Country Club course and support the golfers at any home match as well as their third annual CM Golf tournament being held Sunday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. If golfers have any questions about getting a team in or sponsorship, they are asked to contact Brooke Fravel or Christy VanGorder.
The team opened with a win at Clearfield last week and is to golf at Shikellamy on Thursday of this week. The next home event is with Lewisburg on Tuesday of next week.
As for the competition this year, coach Lodek said, “I try to have the golfers only be concerned with the course we are playing that particular day, not so much the opponents. All the teams we face have good golfers. One match at a time and one hole at a time. As golfing legend Sam Snead said “Forget your opponent; always play against par.”
