Another fall sport who showed success last season at Laurel-Concord-Coleridge will be looking to take another step in the right direction as official NSAA fall team practices began during the week of August 11.
LCC girls golf will return experience with no new faces but have younger girls who have worked hard this summer to get on varsity.
Christina Patefield is in year 13 leading LCC girls golf. She'll be joined by Paxton Peters as a new assistant.
There will be eight on team with half being seniors. They include Holly Pateifled, Danica Gould, Stella Kock and Kennedy Hall.
"At the end of last season, I encouraged the team to golf as much as possible," said Patefield. "Send a message out to their teammates to see if they were available to head to the course and participate in the Northeast Nebraska golf tour."
Some team goals for LCC girls golf will be to return to state as a team. Coach Patefield said, 'usually it takes upper 300s and lower 400s to get to state in the district, but it's a new year.'
The Bears will look to replace two of the girls from state team and six total seniors.
Holly Patefield, junior Harper Bruning and Danica Gould will return off the state team while the others will all fight for the varsity sports.
Coach Patefield would like to see more improvement in the short-game.
"That's going to be my biggest goal for this year is to get them so good at their short game basically where they're one or two putting at most," Patefield added. "My goal is each one of them should be able to cut off 18 strokes, just take away a putt from every hole.
On August 15, LCC will be playing a round of nine holes and treat it like a tournament to decide varsity and JV for the August 21 meet in Beemer.
"We love when we can have supporters at the golf course," Patefield mentioned. "I realize this year, is only a couple of opportunities. But the girls enjoy seeing their classmates or past teammates that come back and watch. They love having that support."
Cedar View golf course is a helpful course allowing the Bears to get to work on putting and chipping very well. The greens in Laurel are, 'somewhat hard to hold a shot so, it's good practice for the girls for any where that they go.'
Senior Holly Patefield and junior Harper Bruning took a few moments away from their putting practice on August 12 to speak with the Wayne Herald.
Holly Patefield, who's favorite club is her six-iron, first started golfing around age 5-6.
"Love meeting all the people and a lot of times you end up playing the same people and you just make really good friends with them," said Holly Patefield.
Holly was able to get 'quite a lot of golf in', but not as much as she wanted to. She did join some of her teammates in area tournaments participating in a handful of rounds.
"Love summer tournaments," Holly Patefield added. "They are a lot more relaxed. You know you're not working towards something, it's still competitive, you're just a little more relaxed."
During this first week, Holly Patefield is making sure that things keep going in the right direction to improve on consistency in swing and game, getting through the entire round without getting tired and that the swing is same throughout the whole event.
She is most excited to see how the Bears work together with the smaller number due to graduation last year.
Bruning, who's favorite club in the bag is her driver, first picked up the club around age 4-5.
"I enjoy the sport and meeting new people," said Bruning. "Having fun while doing it."
She competed in a lot of summer tournaments, around 20 rounds all together. Bruning was able to go out and work on her skills and try to improve some that needed worked on.
During this first week of practice, she'll be honing in on her skills.
Both Holly Patefield and Bruning want to thank their supporters and also look forward to growing the program for the future.
"Thank you so much for coming I really appreciate it and I know the team does as well," said Holly Patefield. "It means a lot to us, I feel like it really helps us know there are people behind us supporting us."
"Thank you for supporting me," Bruning added. "I appreciate people coming out and it's nice to see family's supporting."
"Try hard and go out all the time and just do as much as you can," Holly Patefield mentioned. "See how it goes, golf is an unpredictable sport."
"If you think you want to try it, try it," said Bruning. "If you like it go out for it, you can always get better. Just keep practicing, practice pays off."
Last year, the Bears sent five to the NSAA Class C state golf championships and return a trio of the qualifiers.
Three-time state qualifier Holly Patefield tied for 34th (99/93) last year; tied for 54th (96/108) in 2023 and was a member of the LCC team who qualified in 2022 her freshman season and tied for 78th (118/112).
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge placed seventh out of the 15 teams with a 775 (394/381) in 2024 at Lake Maloney Golf Club in North Platte.
Other returners will be junior Harper Bruning who t-49th (100/100) and senior Danica Gould took 89th (119/120).
The LCC girls golf program will begin their season at the West Point-Beemer Invite on Thursday, August 21 at 9 a.m.
"Hard course to start at," said Patefield. "We talk about the importance of exercise. Every year about hole 13, the endurance is needed. We don't use carts at practice, I make them walk everywhere."
The Bears will also host Pender and Tri County Northeast (Allen/Emerson-Hubbard) on September 16 at 4 p.m. for a triangular and the LCC Invite is scheduled for September 27 at 9 a.m. at Cedar View Country Club in Laurel.
A schedule change for the previously scheduled triangular at Hartington will now be held in Wayne on Tuesday, August 26 with LCC and Cedar Catholic. Teams will play nine holes starting at 4 p.m.
