HOOD RIVER - The Hood River Valley High Eagles Class 5A boys golf team, guided by ninth-year Coach Erin Mason, opened its season with a March 16 home tournament at Indian Creek Golf Course.
The Eagles took fourth place in the seven-team event. Lincoln High of Portland, a Class 6A squad, won the tournament.
Mason said: “We had kind of a rough first tournament for us, but we’re still trying to just shake off the rust from our game a little bit.”
The Eagles lost top players in graduated seniors John Olson (state qualifier) and Davis Kerr, but have a 22-member squad, led by returning 2025 state tournament qualifier Aksel Betz. who finished 19th individually last year at state.
Mason said: “We’re just trying to fill in the gaps in replacing the graduated seniors. Right now, we’re just kind of feeling out our program to see who can fill in the gaps. Our starting five has four sophomores and one junior. We’re a young team, but we’ll just continue building until we start conference play and then we’ll see where we can go from there.”
The Eagles compete in the seven-team Northwest Oregon Conference. HRV, Canby, Wilsonville and La Salle are all highly ranked squads.
“We’re in a tough conference and four of the top six teams in Class 5A are in the NWOC, so it’s not going to be an easy schedule,” said Mason. “I have no doubt that Aksel will qualify for state again; he’s a very talented sophomore. I think sophomore Wyatt Bahn also has the potential to qualify for state, as well, but we’ll just see how the year goes.”
The Eagles will compete in their next event March 30 in a Class 6A invitational tournament at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland.
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