Lamar High School golf team members Brent Bates, Jacob Machone, and Jorge Morales (l-tr) head to the course at Spreading Antlers Golf Course on Monday morning for the first day of 2008 Fall Sports practice. The Savages will have only this week of practice before they host their first meet of the season which will be the Lamar Invitational on Monday, August 11.

Lamar High School golf took to the links at Spreading Antlers Golf Course on Monday morning (Aug. 4) for the first official day of practice to begin to the 2008 season.

This year’s golf team will be under the guidance of new head coach Bob Heist.

Heist is no stranger to coaching, having been a longtime mentor for the Lamar Middle School football team.

However, it will mark the first time that he has taken the assignment as head coach for the LHS golf team.

Looking ahead to a new venture, Heist said, “I’ll be coaching a new sport this year. It will be the first year for golf after 20 some years of coaching middle school football.”

Heist said he was approached by Larry Romine, Lamar High School principle, to see if he was interested in the coaching job.

“Larry (Romine) knew that I played golf and I have played forever,” he said. “Years ago, they asked me to be the golf coach, but I said, ‘No, not at this point.’ This year, Larry talked to me and I was convinced to do it.”

Heist will take over the program from Jamie Gersick, who coach the team for the last two years.

This year will see two classifications in golf - Class 4A and Class 3A (which Lamar will compete in).

“In the last few years, our kids have had to play against the bigger schools,” explained Heist. “My goal is that since we get to play in 3A, I hope to advance more kids to state or maybe even qualify our team. We’ve got some kids with experience coming back. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

The new coach had over a dozen prospects report on the first day of practice.

His troops won’t have much practice time and will jump into the season in a hurry.

The Lamar junior varsity team will compete in Fowler on Friday.

The Lamar varsity team will then host their annual Lamar Invitational on Monday at 9 a.m. at Spreading Antlers Golf Course. The following day, the varsity team will compete in La Junta.