Lady Bears take home ECOL golf title

WARSAW – River View High School’s varsity girls’ golf team is the proud owner of its first and last ever ECOL championship title.

“They never had a girls’ championship in the league until this year, but this will be River View’s last because they are moving to the MVL,” said Head Coach Bill Stufflebean.

The championship also will be extra memorable for the team because the girls avenged their only loss on the season from New Philadelphia. At the ECOL Championship, which was held at Marietta Country Club, the Lady Bears came out on top by one stroke. Team scores were: River View -178; New Philadelphia – 179; Warren – 193; Marietta – 219; and Dover – 233. The Lady Bears individual scores were: Marie Stufflebean – 41 (second individual); Emma Anderson – 44 (fourth individual); Madalyn Cutshall – 46 (seventh individual); and Paige Nicely – 47 (ninth individual).

“The kids really pushed hard for this,” Stufflebean said.

He realized at the start of the season that the team had it in them to earn the ECOL title.

“At the Tri-County PreSeason Tourney we faced a lot of big DI schools and some really big Canton schools,” Stufflebean said. “Last year we came in third there and this year we were fifth. We pretty much started off where we left off last year.”

Marie, a senior on the team, said it helped that they only lost two seniors from last year’s group and that some younger players stepped up.

“The girls worked really hard and we put a lot into this,” Marie said.

She was glad they were able to able to get past New Philadelphia a second time around.

“I’m glad we beat them,” Marie said. “They were pretty happy when they won at Eaglesticks.”

She and fellow senior Kailyn Shalosky both golfed in junior high and were happy to see the girls team start their freshman year.

“If you would have told me in seventh grade that Marie and I would go from golfing with the boys to being the first four year lettermen on a girls’ team I wouldn’t have believed you,” she said.

Shalosky believes the team worked well together this year and kept bettering themselves as the season went along.

Anderson, another senior on the team, picked up the sport as a freshman and wasn’t serious about it, but that has changed.

“It (golf) fits my personality,” she said. “I’m glad I did it. I’ve grown with it. I know the rules and what I need to do and could have a little more fun this year.”

Anderson, Shalosky, and Marie are all considering golfing in college.

Two of the younger players who helped the trio’s senior season be successful were Madalyn Cutshall and Paige Nicely.

“Winning the ECOL felt fantastic,” said Cutshall, who is a junior at RVHS. “I hope everyone is back next year, we improve a lot and have a good season again.”

Nicely, a freshman member of the team, golfed in junior high and was excited to join the girls’ team this year.

“It’s been really fun,” she said. “I enjoyed spending time with all of them.”

Her dad, Sean, was the assistant coach this year and will take over the team for Bill, who’s been with the girl’s coach since the team started four years ago.

“I enjoyed developing the program,” Bill said.

Category: High School, Sports