Barnum High School Golf

Well the BHS golf team completed our Great River Conference season today at Izaty’s resort. We managed to complete the match before the rains came.

On the boys side, Ryan Manahan shot the lowest score and finished 2nd overall in the conference. Teammate Layne Wickstrom finish 5th overall Both earned All Conference.

For the girls team, second year players Avery Westendorf, Madi Koecher and Megan Swenson earned All Conference honors as well!

Congratulations Barnum Bomber golfers; Section Tournament is next week at Virginia Golf Course.

I have thanked often our BHS golf “family” for all the support you all give me and our program. Craig was a valuable member of our BHS golf family that always supported me and especially the kids. I will miss him dearly. On behalf of myself and the Barnum golf program I want to extend my deepest condolences and support to the entire Stahlbusch family at this tragic time.

Brent

Craig Stahlbusch Craig “Bush” Stahlbusch, 67 of Sturgeon Lake, formerly of Barnum, MN died unexpectedly at his winter home in Apache Junction, AZ.

Hello everyone, it is that time of year again. At least according to the calendar! Our 2022 BHS golf season starts tomorrow for our teams. As every spring starts, we will be inside for awhile until conditions allow us to venture outside. While the immediate forecast for this week is calling for more of that “white stuff” we are all tired of, hopefully it won’t be much!

Coach Manahan and myself are ready to go and looking forward to working with not only our returning players, but our first time players as well. This season will also be a first for me as I won’t have to juggle full time work with coaching as I am retiring in April from USG.
So looking forward to not having those challenges on my plate this Spring!

We will also be selling the MN Golf cards as a team fundraiser this year, so stay tuned for more details. Anyway…think “warm” thoughts and hopefully all BHS Spring sports can get a good start to our seasons! As always thank you for your support of our golf program and let’s go kids…time to get swinging 🏌️‍♂️!

Coach Donaldson

Hello everyone, well we are heading down the home stretch as we have one week left in our GRC conference season. Going to be a busy week for the BHS golf team: Monday the JV girls will go to Pine City for their final match of the season. Tuesday the varsity will be at Grand National GC in Hinckley and then Thursday we wrap up conference play at Bulrush GC. Then it will be on to the Section 7A Tournament up in Virginia in the 26th & 27th.

After our second go around at Izatys this past week, Ryan, Delaney and Riki Mae are still in position to make All Conference. I am confident that all three will have a good week and hold their spots in conference play.

Weather should be good this week so I am excited to see what happens in our last two conference matches. Have a great week everyone and hey team... let’s go!

Coach Donaldson

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Barnum Bomber Golf Moms! It was another busy week last week as we hosted a JV Match at The Rugged Spruce GC last Monday. MLWR and Isle/Onamia came to Mahtowa. Golf course is in good shape and Jim/Colleen and staff were excited for the kids to invade The Rugged Spruce. The JV girls have come a long ways in a few short weeks. Great to see the improvement in all of them as they are the future of the girls team in the years to come. Tomorrow we go down to Rush City and take in Bulrush GC.

Last Wednesday we traveled to the south shore of Milacs Lake and took on Izatys Resort GC for our GRC match. Our young team was put to the test as this is not only a long course, but the greens are firm, fast with a lot of breaking putts. Having said that, the boys team has clawed its way into 3rd place in the conference and only 1 pt behind second place Braham. First time varsity player Jordan Bird had his best round this year on the hardest course we will play! Good job Jordan. Individually Ryan, Delaney and Riki Mae are all in position to make All Conference. Very happy for them and hope they keep up the good golf.

And guess what... we get to go back to Izatys on Wednesday again! Yup, back to back weeks...wonder if that nice 36” Northern will still be in the stream in front of #1 tee box?

Hopefully we can improve some strokes this week playing Izatys for a second straight week. Would love to see the boys team catch Braham and move into second place. That’s all for now; have a great week and Go Barnum Bomber Golfers!

Coach Donaldson

Well another week in the books and it was a busy one. As I told the JV girls on Monday, we will just consider this a “team building “ trip: we had our first JV match scheduled to play at Pine City. After watching the weather all day and looking at the radar, Pine City gave the go ahead for the match. So off we go... only to turn right around after we got there! The skies opened up, lightening ensued and the match was canceled.

I felt awful for the girls as this was our second JV match canceled. But, we had another one on Thursday at Sandstone . This time the weather cooperated and the girls finally got to play. I was very proud of them as they did just fine ; I saw a lot of good golf shots and smiles, which is all I was hoping for. Good job girls! Next up for the JV girls is our home match tomorrow 5/3, at The Rugged Spruce!

Last Tuesday the rain stopped but the temps dropped as we traveled to Hinckley for our second GRC conference match. It stayed dry but man it was chilly. Team had a decent day as a lot of my players shot better scores than the previous match: Ryan Manahan is sitting in second place in conference points for the boys. Delaney Koecher is tied for 3rd and Riki Mae Duevel is tied for 7th in the girls side.

This week and next, we travel to Izaty’s Resort for our next two GRC matches. Going to be a real test for this young team as this will be the longest Course the kids will play. No carts allowed for the kids so it will be a long walk for them.

Yesterday (Saturday 5/1) we had our golf course clean up day at Rugged Spruce. Weather was absolutely awesome and we got a lot of work done. Thank you kids for coming and especially those parents that helped out as well. Really appreciate all the support and I know Jim, Colleen and staff appreciated all the work that we did as well.

Let’s hope that the weather stays dry and warm so that we can continue hitting that darn white ball around 😁.

Great job this week team...Go Barnum Golfers!

Coach Donaldson

Good morning...Snow snow, go away! Well our course clean up has been postponed until next Saturday, 5/1. Hopefully it warms back up this week.

We had our first Varsity match last week at Purple Hawk GC in Cambridge. Being that this was the first time the team actually played 18 holes a golf course , the kids did OK. Ryan Manahan tied for third in the boys side, Delaney Koecher tied for 5th and Riki Mae for 7th for the girls.

The rest of our first time varsity golfers did just fine too, proud of all of them! Next match is Tuesday 4/27 at Grand National in Hinckley.

We have two JV matches this coming week in Pine City and Sandstone; looking forward to getting the JV girls (no JV boys this year) in these matches and having fun!

All in all we are off and running with this great group of Barnum golfers! Come on Sun!!

Coach Donaldson

Well Happy Spring everyone! After not being able to have a 2020 HS Golf season, I am so thankful that we are back in the swing of things in 2021! We have had two weeks of practice up at the high school, outside mostly which has been great. Our first varsity match is this coming Tuesday at Bulrush GC.

This will be a rebuilding year for us as we have only 3 returning varsity players this year. We only have 6 boys and 9 girls. But they are a really good group of young players that will get the opportunity to play both in both JV and varsity matches. This will only help grow the program back in a shorter time frame hopefully.

I am also very thankful that Jim and Colleen Myhre for taking over ownership and reopening, The Rugged Spruce Golf Course in Mahtowa. So glad we still have our home course. Please support them!

I will update this page in the coming weeks as our season progresses. Thank you again for supporting BHS Golf...let’s go Bombers!

Coach Donaldson

Hello everyone! First and foremost I want to congratulate the entire BHS class of 2020. So thankful for what the school did to honor and give you a graduation last evening. You deserved it and again congratulations seniors!

As a Spring sports goes, it is easy to beat ourselves over the “would haves, could haves or should haves” regarding this golf season. Yes I was excited about all of these things and really looking forward to this year. But that is pointless at this point and not what I want to do. Instead I want to do two things: I first want to sincerely thank and celebrate our 3 seniors for their past accomplishments and contributions to the golf program. Maddie Manahan, Owen Clampitt snd Dawson Collelo...THANK YOU for being members of the program and all your contributions and efforts over the years! I appreciate and thank all three of you for everything you have accomplished and given this program over the years!

I also want to focus on the future. Golf team, we will be back on the course next year. We will continue to be a strong team. We will face challenges, and we will overcome these challenges...if we remain strong and committed! Stay strong team, keep positive and let’s keep committed to BHS Golf. We will be back next year!

Thank you everyone for your support of our program, have a safe and healthy summer. Blessings to you all!

Coach Brent

Good afternoon golf team,
Well team it is official: Just got the notification from the MSHSL that all Spring sports and activities are indeed cancelled for this year. Nothing that we probably didn’t know already.

I am so sorry kids , especially for our 3 seniors; Maddie, Owen and Dawson. I will have more to say about them later. But go ahead and pass the word around to team members. Again I am so sorry we could compete in the Great River Conference or Section 7A this year.

Coach Brent

Hello Team: Per MSHSL in accordance with Gov. Waltz’s executive order just announced, all school activities and sports are postponed until 5/4/20. The MSHSL has not yet made a final decision on canceling Spring Sports yet.

I will continue to update as soon as I am updated. My heart breaks for all you, but especially you seniors. But right now, there are more important things than golf for all of us. I fully support these efforts to keep all of us Minnesotan’s safe and healthy. Please be safe yourselves and stay healthy, all of you.

We may not have the chance this season to show it in the golf course, but We are still a great team! Hang in there Bombers!

Coach Brent

BHS Golf team: As of right now, due to school closure until 3/27, golf practice is not scheduled to begin until Monday 3/30. Please help spread the word how ever you can to players. Please be aware that this can change any day; I will update you as soon as I am updated by the school or the MSHSL.

Stay safe and hang in there as best you can!

Coach

Update: Per MSHSL, no Spring Sports activities of any kind allowed through 3/27/20. Therefore, no golf practice until week of 3/30/20...at the moment. I will continue to update as information becomes available.

Hello everyone
Been a long winter to say the least for all of us. Thought I would give an update on our current situation:
-As of right now our Spring 2020 golf season is going forward. Practice will begin Monday 3/23. The MSHSL has limited all Spring sports to practices only until middle of April; no matches, games or meets can take place. Up here in Northern MN, it is usually late April before we get to play any golf, baseball/softball or track anyway. But as we all know, things can change fast with this Corona Virus situation; I will update as needed.

-For a fundraiser this year we are selling the MN Golf discount cards instead of having a 9 hole scramble. Cards are $35 and give you discounts to a lot of golf courses here in the Northland and surrounding area. I will post more specific information in the coming weeks.

“IF” anything does change as far as our golf season being impacted further by Corona Virus situation, I will let you all know. But for now 2020 golf season is on and we are looking forward to the season! Thank you all for your past support of BHS Golf, stay healthy and talk soon!

Brent

We concluded our 2019 golf season with a trip to the State Class A golf tournament at Pebble Creek Golf Course in Becker, MN. So proud of Brandon and Delaney for qualifying this year.

A lot of tears were shed as it is always bittersweet when a Senior plays his/her last hole. This was definitely the case this year as Brandon Calverley concluded his High School golf career. When you get the pleasure of coaching these kids for 5 or 6 yrs, you kind of get attached to them...hard to see this chapter of their lives end. While day 1 was a rough one, day 2 was much better and Brandon finished on a strong note. As we were walking up the fairway on the last hole, tears swelling up in my eyes, Brandon reminded me that he still had to finish the hole and make par...and he did!

This was Delaney’s first go around at State. Plan going in was to use this as a learning experience to build on for next year if she earns her way back either as an individual or better yet, the whole girls team! We did learn a lot and I have no doubt that we will build on this experience and come back strong next year!

Especially want to thank Trish for everything she does for me and the kids! Also want to thank Matt, Tina and the Koecher family, Brian and Bonita Calverley for all your support at State. Team mates Maddie, Riki Mae and Ryan for coming and supporting us. Coach here really appreciates it!

So until next golf season rolls around this will be it for awhile. Time to focus on my golf game! Thank you again everyone for all the support you give BHS golf. Have a great summer everyone !

Coach Brent

Players and parents:
We will have our end of season golf awards banquet @29 Pines GC on Tuesday, 6/4/19. Golf team; for those of you golf team players who can make it (strictly voluntary) we will have our first annual BHS golf team “one club” tournament starting at 4pm or so. Just a fun end the season tournament for us. I will fill you in in the details when we start.

Afterwards, at around 5:45 Rocci will have a “burger bar” ready: I will cover the cost for the players, but if parents/grandparents etc want to eat with us, the cost would be $5.00.

When we are done eating ( around 6:30) we will start the awards portion. If anyone has any questions at all, please feel free to contact me . Hope to see you all there!

Coach Brent

WOW...this was a special day and Section Tournament! I am very proud of all of the kids for not only playing in very tough weather conditions the past two days, but also putting forth the efforts they did. Several of the kids had their best Section Tournament.

I am especially proud and very happy to report that we are sending two Barnum Bombers to the State Class A tournament!

Senior Brandon Calverley earned his second consecutive trip to State by securing the 3rd individual qualifying spot. He played determined, focused golf and made others chase him. We had a plan and he executed that plan and played solid golf to secure his second trip down to Pebble Creek GC.

Sophomore Delaney Koecher earned her first trip to the State Tournament by securing the 5th Qualifier spot in a playoff with a girl from Bigfork in front of all of the other Section 7A participants! Thankfully for both of us, she only needed one hole to do it!

Delaney played pretty much a perfect hole; she split the fairway with a great drive. Put her approach shot in the middle of the green. Lagged her birdie put a couple feet from the pin and then drained her par putt to win the playoff. So very happy for her as she definitely earned it!

I especially want to thank coach Kelsey Timm and coach Trish Manahan for making this season a special one for me and the kids. I cannot run this golf program without a lot of help. To have a past graduate in Kelsey has meant a lot to this coach. So darn proud of her.

To continue to have Trish along side working with me and the kids is such a tremendous asset. THANK YOU both for your help this season!

So it is off to the State Tournament for Brandon, Delaney coach Manahan and myself. But well done to all of the kids for their efforts on the golf course, as well as representing themselves and our school extremely well.

Good job kids, very proud of all of you!!

Coach Brent

Hello everyone, big week as we will be playing in the Section 7A tournament this Wed/Thur at Virginia Golf Course. For those of you who want to follow the live scoring, here are the two web sites:

7A Boys: www.iwanamaker.com/node/5423438

7A Girls: www.iwanamaker.com/node/5423585

Let’s hope for some decent weather; I am looking forward to see what the kids can do this year!

Coach Brent

MSHSL Section 7 Boys A Championship | iWanamaker