Oct. 25—EFFINGHAM — Practice officially began in early August for all high school golf teams in the state.
For the St. Anthony Bulldogs, though, the season started well before then.
Each player competes in tournaments or will work on their respective games at the surrounding golf courses in Effingham over the summer. Head coach Phil Zaccari also accepted an invitation to return to the PGA High School Golf National Invitational, played in Frisco, Texas, adding to the excessive play during the offseason.
The senior golfers that were in the top six this year — Ryan Schmidt, Joey Trupiano and Dakota Flaig — played in the event. St. Anthony finished 28th out of 50 teams.
“We placed 28th overall, which I didn’t think was too bad for a school our size,” Zaccari said. “That’s where things started.”
Trupiano shot a final round 76 in his first round and 77 in his second and third. Flaig shot 78 in his first round, 83 in his second and 80 in his third, and Schmidt shot 80 in his first round, 86 in his second and 83 in his third.
Zaccari added that his team was a little beat before the season began.
But the ship kept rolling along.
Just a few weeks after the tournament, the season would begin and, with that, a solid start to the year.
The Bulldogs opened the season with a second-place finish at the Battle at Rend Lake. After that, St. Anthony won the St. Anthony Invitational and finished third at the Raider Invitational at Weibring Golf Club.
“The Battle at Rend Lake, we finished second. We played a very good Benton team and they lit it up,” Zaccari said. “We did OK; we beat Breese (Mater Dei) by one stroke. We then won our tournament (the St. Anthony Invitational). Then, we went to Weibring, played in the Raider Invitational, and finished third. That was a very good tournament for us. Normal (University) beat us up there, but that’s their home course, and the other team that beat us was a big 4A school out of Davenport, Iowa, but they only beat us by nine.
“We were very competitive.”
Battling the end-of-August heatwave that forced the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) to cancel several outdoor activities, the Bulldogs were forced to not compete for most of that week. They returned at the Edwardsville Invitational, though a once two-day tournament was changed to a single-day event.
“The Edwardsville Invitational was supposed to be a two-dayer, but they dropped that down to one. That was on a Saturday and we didn’t play our best,” Zaccari said. “We led most of the tournament and didn’t finish it. It was all really bunched up at the top. We finished fourth but were three strokes from winning.”
St. Anthony finished shooting a 311. Chatham (Glenwood) won the event with a 308, Breese (Mater Dei) was second at 310 and Normal (University) was third at 310.
Junior Jack Swingler fired a 75 in that tournament. Junior Maddux Clark and Schmidt each fired rounds of 78 and seniors Dakota Flaig and Joey Trupiano each shot 80. Drake Brown finished with an 82.
“It was basically trying to sort things out and find that right mix, our right order,” said Zaccari of his team’s finish at Edwardsville. “After being pumped up and, hopefully, being able to play on Friday, it was probably a little bit of a letdown.”
St. Anthony then won its next five regular season tournaments: the Olney (Richland County) Invitational, the Mattoon Invitational, the John Macek Invitational, the Paris Invitational and the Crusader Invitational.
Zaccari’s team was the only team to break 600 over two days at the Mattoon Invitational.
Flaig shot 71 at Meadowview Golf Course and then again at Mattoon Golf & Country Club. Trupiano shot 77 at each course. Swingler shot 77 at Meadowview and 75 at Mattoon Country Club and Clark shot 74 at Meadowview and 75 at Mattoon Country Club. Schmidt and Ethan Karolewicz were the non-counters. Schmidt shot 79 at Meadowview and 74 at Mattoon Country Club; Karolewicz shot 86 at Meadowview and 85 at Mattoon Country Club.
“In the last three years, this group has gone first, second and first (at the Mattoon Invitational),” Zaccari said. “Chatham (Glenwood) beat us last year, too, so we redeemed ourselves. We were the only school there to break 600 for two days and that jump-started the backend of our year.”
Three days later, the Bulldogs won again, winning the John Macek Invitational with a team score of 289.
Flaig shot 75, Trupiano a 71, Swingler a 76, Clark a 73, Schmidt a 70 and Karolewicz a 77 at the University of Illinois Blue Course in Savoy.
“I’m very familiar with the Blue Course. Only one of the guys had played it, so we had to learn how to play it,” Zaccari said. “It’s a little different; we could have gone lower. It’s a neat tournament.”
St. Anthony won the Paris Invitational with a team score of 315. The Bulldogs’ junior varsity team placed second at the event.
“We did OK at Paris. The guys don’t like that tournament, but we do well,” Zaccari said. “The course was in pretty good shape. It dries out, especially in September, but the greens were great. We sent both teams there and finished first and second. Manaye Mossman stepped up and that’s where he earned his spot on the state team.”
Following that win was a tournament that featured a record-breaking feat when Trupiano set the program record for the lowest round, firing a 65 at the Crusader Invitational.
“The guys love that tournament,” Zaccari said. “Joey shot 65, shot the school record for the lowest score, but even he said, ‘It didn’t feel like that,’ but that’s Joey. When you watched him play, he played a boring round of golf but made putts. The putter got hot and he was dropping birdies everywhere. He missed one short birdie and he lipped out on his last hole.”
Trupiano shot 35 on the front nine and 30 on the back. Swingler fired a final round 70, junior Alec Hakman shot a 76 and Schmidt shot a 78. The two non-counters in that tournament were Flaig with an 80 and Clark with an 81.
St. Anthony took that momentum into the postseason, winning the three most important tournaments of the year: the regional, sectional and state championships.
“We hosted the regional, the guys played well, we won and we broke 300 again,” Zaccari said. “We were expected to win and the guys stepped up and did that. Then, we went down to sectionals, expecting heavier competition, but we did great. It wasn’t like a dominating great; it was a steady, even. We made a few birdies and a lot of pars. Jack gets it going, shoots a 70 and wins it, which triggers our way into state.”
Before the season, the IHSA announced that they had pushed the state tournament back one week for those observing Rosh Hashanah.
The Bulldogs had a nearly two-week break. Zaccari hosted the annual St. Anthony Match Play at Effingham Country Club, which was initially suspended due to the weather. The Bulldogs lost that event by a half-point to Teutopolis.
“It turned out to be a showcase,” Zaccari said. “All of the area teams that had qualified for state were there. It’s a fun tournament; it’s match play. It’s different. I always purposely set it up so that our guys can try to play the toughest matches possible because I think that helps them focus.”
The Bulldogs then won their seventh state championship and third in a row after a two-day score of 612.
Zaccari knows that the goal is always the state tournament, and whatever happens there happens.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and we’ve been relatively successful to where we can go often,” said Zaccari on another state trip. “I kind of look at it as, ‘If we’re not at state, we didn’t finish the season.’ Next year is going to be difficult. It’s going to be a different environment playing at the 2A level, but we played a full season.”
This group of seniors, in particular, felt the same way, though winning it was more on their minds.
“After we had our ceremony last year, we were talking and I said, ‘What’s the goal?’ They said, ‘We want the third. We have to get the third,'” Zaccari said. “They’ve been focused and driving for that.”
Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.
