10/25/2006

Record-Eagle/Mark Urban
Suttons Bay's Nate Kelly talks during a school assembly on Tuesday as teammates (from left) Charlie Olson, Sam Foster, Josh Schaub and Max Evans look on. On the stage is the state championship golf trophy the Norse won this weekend.

Norsemen honored

Senior-dominated squad edged out TC St. Francis

By MARK URBAN

murban@record-eagle.com

SUTTONS BAY — It's fitting that the Suttons Bay High School drum line played before Tuesday's assembly honoring the school's state champion golf team.

The beat seems to go on for the Norsemen, who won their third state championship in the past seven seasons this weekend.

"Since the seventh grade we've dreamed about being on a state championship team," Suttons Bay senior all-stater Nate Kelly said. "It feels good to finally be a state champion team."

Even though this state title isn't the first in school history, it is the first for this group. Suttons Bay won back-to-back crowns in 2000 and 2001.

"Those teams were such dominant teams that we knew going in we had a good chance to win the state title," Suttons Bay coach Todd Hursey said of the first two state crowns won by 11 and 10 strokes. "They weren't all senior-dominated teams.

"This was a senior-laden team that knew it was their last chance."

Suttons Bay went into the state final at The Meadows in Allendale ranked fifth. The Norsemen led by six shots after the first day against No. 1 Traverse City St. Francis and held off the Gladiators the second day to win by four shots.

"We had a great season, but things were back-and-forth with St. Francis all season," Hursey said. "There were also some good scores from teams downstate.

"We definitely weren't considered the favorites coming in."

Of course, that might have worked to the team's advantage.

"We were never ranked high, but that kind of gave us an edge, a little bit of a chip on our shoulders," Suttons Bay senior Drew Palmer said.

The other motivation came from the inability to take the crown back to Suttons Bay last season.

"We were No. 1 all year," Hursey said. "The way things finished for us was not so good. We were third last year and they weren't happy about it."

Hursey said the team started talking about winning the 2006 title while riding home from the 2005 final.

"This is what we wanted ... the big trophy," Suttons Bay senior David Tropf said.

After winning back-to-back state titles, Suttons Bay elected to play up a division the next two seasons. So the current group of seniors qualified for the Division 3 state final in 2003 and have finished second, third and now first in Division 4.

The sign before the Suttons Bay village limits proudly proclaims that it's the home of the 2000 and 2001 state golf champions. And there's room to add 2006 as well.

"There's lots of room on the sign," Palmer said with a big smile on his face. "Lots of room."