Two-Sport Athletes Helping Grow Hazen Union Golf Program
by Ken Brown
HARDWICK – Head coach Jason McArthur will have one of his largest teams to date at Hazen Union this season thanks to the rising interest in the game of golf among student athletes already playing a sport this fall.
Two sport student athletes allowed Hazen to qualify and compete in their first ever team sectional event as a golf program at the end of the 2021 season. Soccer players Jadon Baker, Xavier Hill, and Tyson Davison joined Andrew Menard to qualify and form that team, perhaps starting a trend that could lead to bigger and better things for McArthur’s Wildcats.
“Allowing two sport athletes to compete for us again this year have allowed us to have a great turnout for the program this fall. Andrew, Jadon, and Xavier qualified for team sectionals last year and our goal remains to get back there and all three should have a good chance of having strong seasons and accomplishing that,” said McArthur.
Joining that trio on McArthur’s squad will be seniors Tyler Rivard, Zach Therrien from Danville, and junior Eliot Rosendahl. Sophomore Gavin Stratton and Peoples Academy transfer Brendan Moodie are new to golf and will also be on the team. In all, McArthur will have two full-time golfers and six players moonlighting over from the soccer team. The trend started last season with graduating seniors Aasha Gould and Davison making the jump to the links during soccer season. Davison made sectionals and Gould made an eye-popping two aces during the same week at Mountain View Country Club during practice rounds and the rest is history as interest started to spread.
“Jadon, Tyler, and Zach should all have strong senior seasons for us a chance to qualify for sectionals. Zach will be representing Danville, but practicing with us throughout the season. Xavier, Eliot, and Andrew represent a strong junior class for us. There have already been a couple of low practice rounds between them so it will be fun to see their continued improvement throughout the season. Brendan and Gavin are multi-sport athletes, have good bases to work with, and should pick up the game very quickly. The veterans on this team can all battle for low score on any given day, so it should be a fun season and we are hopeful for some low rounds translating into varsity matches this year. Andy Hunt is helping the program out this year and he is looking forward to helping grow the sport, program, and the kids love for the game. Lastly we would like to thank Mountain View C.C. in Greensboro once again. They welcome and support this program every season and we appreciate it,” said McArthur.
Hazen Union is scheduled to tee-off their season this Wednesday at Stowe.
