Grapevine golfers have strong showing at state tournament

The Grapevine golf program made a major splash this season, finishing in the top 10 in the state on both the boys and girls side, and coach Bryan Humphreys said that he is pretty pleased with how his team responded to the new classification.

Grapevine finished eighth overall on the boys side at the state tournament and seventh overall on the girls side, and the program had one player, Will Hocker, who earned all-state honors.

“The teams performed great,” Humphreys said. “This is the first time for the boys and girls teams to go to the state tournament in the same year. Expectations were high, but at the same time, we wanted to make sure they had some good memories from going to the tournament.

“The girls finished seventh and the boys finished eighth. Kyle Corey finished 13th individually and Elly Baze finished 16th individually on the girls side, and Will Hocker finished 10th on the boys side as an individual.”

Humphreys said he was thrilled with how the season unfolded as a whole and said his team definitely accomplished the objectives it had set out for itself at the beginning of the season.

“Last year, we kind of set the stage with the girls going to the state tournament,” Humphreys said. “The boys just barely missed it by eight shots. The girls wanted to get back, and we had to replace four seniors on the girls team. Being able to make that quick turn around, we were just very impressed. The girls worked extremely hard and put a lot of extra time in. They didn't want to let the school down.

“For the boys, the incentive was just missing it last year, and you could tell by the way they played near the end of the year. They were always finishing top five near the end and they had a fire in their belly to make it this season...I couldn't be more proud of these guys and girls. They put their hearts into everything.”

Humphreys said he was very happy to see such a large contingent from Grapevine at the state tournament and said there are a couple of things he would like for his players to take away from this season.

“I always try to tell them from back when I was a junior golfer,” Humphreys said. “These types of things will stay with you if you ever make it to a state tournament. When we were out there, during a couple of the team meetings, I told them 'don't be afraid when you're out there to look around at the crowd,' because you rarely get to see those kinds of crowds. Those crowds are there to see them, and it is something they should enjoy. Most of us never play professionally, so this is their U.S. Open.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Grapevine golfers have strong showing at state tournament."