Region 3 unveils new Crawford County look

By Pete Chiodo

Aug. 19, 2008 August 18, 2008 11:50 pm

— It’s kind of like the old French Creek Valley conference, but not quite. It’s kind of like a Crawford County league, but not entirely. What is it? It is the new version of the Region 3 golf league, which will be battling it out for at least the next two seasons.
The new league pits old FCVC foes Cambridge Springs, Linesville, Maplewood, Saegertown and Union City — the lone Erie County team. And added in that lineup is Meadville, the largest school in the group.
“It’s OK,” said Cambridge Springs head coach Larry Shrefler. “It’s like going back to French Creek Valley.”
Cambridge Springs comes into the new league after winning Region 4 last season.
“Every two years we do something new,” Shrefler said. “It’s going to be kind of hard to run a string of region championships together when they keep changing the regions on us.
“But that’s all right. New competition, new places to play.”
“I think it’s more competitive for our kids,” said Linesville coach Bob Slevin. “Most of these kids have played against one another in other sports, like baseball, basketball. They know one another, which is kind of nice. Also, most kids have played on the courses in the area.”
According to Maplewood coach Jack Blatnick, “I just know that we’re going to playing some teams that are a little more our size. The previous year we were playing some schools that were a lot bigger than us ... I’m looking forward to competing with schools more in line with the size of Maplewood.”
Meadville is the lone exception in the size category. Still, Bulldogs coach Fred Garvey is glad his team won’t be traveling to places like Slippery Rock or Oil City for region matches anymore.
“We’re real close this year,” he said. “It’s a half-hour everywhere.”
Region 3 kicks off the season today in the first of six region mega-matches. The six teams will tee off at 11 a.m. at Riverside Golf Course, the home course for Cambridge Springs.
Here’s a quick look at the teams that will be competing for this year’s Region 3 title:

Cambridge Springs

Last year’s Region 4 champ suffered a couple hits after graduation. Gone are District 10 qualifier Chris Young and Adam Sinclair. The team also lost would-be senior Austin Kulig-Kort, whose family moved to the Pittsburgh area.
Still, the Blue Devils bring back a nice group of golfers. Current seniors Corey Tomko and Corey Hobson both qualified for districts last season. And junior Ian Rodgers is a returning letter-winner.
“All three were in the starting six rotation most of the year,” head coach Larry Shrefler said about Tomko, Hobson and Rodgers. “So at least half of the team is coming back. And the younger kids are coming along pretty well. We look to be fairly competitive.”

Linesville

While in Region 4, Linesville has spent the past couple years playing some pretty good Erie County opponents, like Fairview, Girard and General McLane.
“We’re going to miss the competition,” said Linesville coach Bob Slevin. “But the competition in Region 3 is going to be pretty tough, too.”
Graduated from last year’s Lions’ squad is District 10 qualifier Garrett Kimple, who barely missed the cut for regionals last season and is now playing for Mercyhurst College.
However, the Lions return at least one former D-10 qualifier in junior Davis Agnew. Sophomore Sebastian Hutman missed the district cut by just a couple strokes last year. They should give the Lions a solid 1-2 at the top, and will need the rest of the team — which includes two nice groups of sophomores and freshman — to fill out the scoring.

Maplewood

Maplewood fielded a pretty young squad in 2007, and it showed as the team finished in eighth place amongst a tough group of Region 2 teams.
Yet, this season the Tigers have a full season on the links, and some key members have gotten in some valuable rounds over the summer. Head coach Jack Blatnick hopes that adds up to a stronger showing in 2008.
“They gained some valuable experience last year,” Blatnick said. “They’re a year older and seasoned and I hope that proves to be beneficial for them when it comes to playing league matches.”
All of Maplewood’s regular starters were underclassmen last year. So, the Tigers are essentially bringing back their entire core group of golfers. Among them are seniors Trent Burchard and Tyler Wentz and juniors Michael Groshner and Josiah Renaudin. Sophomore Dylan Dennis will take the team’s fifth spot. And a pair of new-to-the-team seniors — John Sisul and James Parson — will battle for the sixth starting position.

Meadville

If any team is the fish-out-of-water in this new Region 3 lineup it would be Meadville. The other five teams in the league at least have a little history with one another. So the Bulldogs and head coach Fred Garvey will kind of be feeling their way around early on.
“As far as the region goes, I hope to compete for it,” said Garvey. “I don’t know how strong the other teams are.”
However, the Bulldogs have every reason to be confident this year. The team features a pair of seniors — Derek Cowan and Cody Albaugh — that qualified for districts last season, and both have had highly productive summers.
Also back are returning starters Zac Culbertson, a junior, and Dakota Tabar, a sophomore.
“After that — we have 14 kids on the boys team — it’s pretty wide open,” said Garvey.

Saegertown

Saegertown will be entering the season with the longest roster of the six Region 3 teams.
“We have (17) kids,” said head coach Brian Hanley, “two girls and (15) boys. We probably have about two or three really good players, three or four shoot in the low- to mid-80s. The rest of the team is battling it out, trying to catch up to the rest of them.
“We have a lot of numbers we can work with and that’s a good thing, I guess.”
Leading the way for the Panthers this year is 2007 D-10 qualifier Robbie Trypus. Another player to watch will be junior Marlan Jones.
“We have a couple more kids that played in the junior league at (Whispering) Pines,” said Hanley. “So we have some tested kids.”
Saegertown also produced a D-10 qualifier out of its female competitors last year. Then-sophomore Brianna Hanley made it out of the girls’ qualifier.

Union City

“We got a chance,” said Union City golf coach Steve Yovich. “We don’t have any real horses that shoot par every day. But most of our kids can shoot somewhere from mid-80 on down. And with the new rules, all have to have three or four solid golfers.”
Even with the graduation of 2007 D-10 qualifier Garrett Mitchell, Yovich says he can still said a solid team out onto the links.
Seniors Jordan Mosher and Jake Ganster are noted as playing well coming into the season. Juniors Alex Yaple and Shane Edwards will probably find themselves in the top four. And Yovich also mentioned a strong scorecard coming out of the sophomore class in Bryan Landis, who barely missed making it to districts last year.