Oct. 25—EFFINGHAM — Four years of hard work and determination for three seniors ended with yet another top prize in all of high school golf — a state championship.
The scene of lifting the large bronze trophy with “State Champions” engraved on it was all too familiar for the St. Anthony senior trio of Ryan Schmidt, Joey Trupiano and Dakota Flaig. All three played a significant role in helping the Bulldogs capture the program’s seventh state championship and third in a row.
“Our three main seniors have had great leadership to follow from our previous seniors and have taken the bar now and raised it,” head coach Phil Zaccari said. “This has been one of my easier years to coach because all I have to do is look at the seniors and tell them, ‘Make sure we do this, this and this,’ and they make it happen. They understand what we’re trying to do.”
Trupiano finished his final two rounds at St. Anthony in a tie for 10th place. He carded a 77 on the first day at Prairie Vista Golf Course. Trupiano was four strokes better on the last day for a two-day total of 150.
In eight rounds at the state tournament, Trupiano has an average score of 76. This has included an individual state championship, which he won as a sophomore in a playoff. He shot a 75 on the first day that year and a 73 on the second before winning the playoff on the first hole.
“Joey just lets his game talk,” Zaccari said. “He’s kind of quiet in the way he does things, but when he does say something, everyone goes, ‘Woah! Wait a minute,’ and they listen.”
Flaig has appeared at the state tournament three times — the lone year he didn’t make the top six was when he was a sophomore.
“Dakota’s got that hunger,” Zaccari said. “That one little hiccup he had his sophomore year taught him a lot. He has been a bulldog ever since.
“When things get going a little crazy, Dakota’s the one that usually brings it back in.”
Flaig finished as the low individual as a freshman, firing a 78 on the first day and a 77 on the second.
He worked tirelessly to prevent that same result as a sophomore from happening again, ultimately returning to the top six as a junior, where he fired a 79 on the first day and a 78 on the second.
Flaig reflected on how much he’s grown since his first trip to Bloomington.
“I was so young and naïve and didn’t really understand what I was even doing,” Flaig said. “I was just whacking a golf ball around. Sophomore year, it stayed the same, and with the team getting better, I didn’t make it and it proved that I had to mature a lot.”
It’s been a similar journey for Schmidt.
He missed out on the top six his first two years before earning a spot as a junior. He parlayed that into finishing with an 84 in his first round and an 81 in his second.
Schmidt followed that with a 78 on the first day and a 77 on the second this past year. He finished 20th individually.
“Ryan’s a competitor and you can see it in the sports he plays,” Zaccari said. “He’s taken that drive and that competitiveness on the basketball court and he’s brought that into the golf game. He’s learned how to stay in the moment more and more. Early in his career, you would see him have a bad hole and then, there would be three or four in a row.
“Now, you see him have a bad hole and he comes back and he birdies the next one. The maturation of his game and the mentality of one hole to the next has greatly matured.”
He credits Zaccari for helping him with that growth.
“I think I’ve grown a lot as a golfer but more as a man,” Schmidt said.
Patience was also important, though.
Waiting your turn and striking when the opportunity was there was vital for Schmidt, along with being at the state tournament and seeing how the course, and team, played each hole.
“I tried to get a feel of what (Zaccari) wants and how to get better. Seeing all the courses that the top six played, what they did and how they played, I wanted to get there,” Schmidt said.
That want was the same mindset his two other senior playing partners had.
That has also helped them accomplish history, too.
“We’ve had golf at St. Anthony for 50 years, but they played golf at the IHSA before we started,” Zaccari said. “To have only six teams and be one of those six that would accomplish a three-peat is historical.”
Alex Wallner can be reached at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.
