The Pitt-Johnstown men’s golf team teed off this season with fourth and second place finishes at their opening tournaments.
“All of us have returned this season stronger than the last,” said Miller. “We are a solid group of players that can and will accomplish what we set our minds too.”
Senior Kyle McCullough said the team will rely on underclassmen after losing senior Jacob Bolby.
“The underclassmen really have pushed the more experienced guys to work harder and perform better,” said McCullough.
“Sophomore Zachary McQueen has already played his first two tournaments and has exceeded expectations.”
This season, the Mountain Cats are ranked 10th out of 13 teams in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Junior Kevin McDonald said he believes their rank does not properly reflect the team’s potential.
“Honestly, I am not happy about the rank,” said McDonald. “I feel like we played better as a team this past season and that we somewhat proved ourselves to other teams and officials in the conference.”
“Although we did not finish in the position we wanted to at our conference championship, we did take fifth and seventh place at two other conference tournaments last season.”
“The only good thing we, as a team, can take out of this (the 10th place ranking) is the fact that it will just make us strive to play that much better,” said McDonald.
“It will push us to gain even more respect from the teams in our conference and show we deserved a better ranking.”
Miller said the team would like to win a tournament and ultimately finish among the top five teams at their conference championship.
“There is some stiff competition in the conference, but we can accomplish our goals with the team we have now,” said Miller.
“Personally, my biggest challenge will be keeping my head in the game because everything is finally falling together for my short game.
“Our biggest challenge will be putting two or three solid good team totals for tournaments,” said McDonald. “We have had it happen too many times where only one or two people play well one day and no one else.
“If we all can just put up solid scores, all at the same time, it will not only boost our confidence as a team, but our rankings and, hopefully, team wins.”
After missing the regional tournament last year, McDonald said the team will work even harder this season.
“The fact that we were so close to competing for regionals and possibly nationals, but didn’t get the chance, really hurt,” said McDonald.
“We just need to take it one tournament, one round, one hole and one shot at a time.
“As coach likes to say, ‘We just need to golf our balls and golf them well.’ ”