Beavers have strong season

By Dean Wong

The 2007 Ballard Beavers golf team is the strongest in years and has already won more matches than last season.

The team is lead by new Head Coach Casey McMullin, a professional instructor at the Interbay Golf Course.

McMullin is a 1984 graduate of Ballard High and has been involved in the game for 27 years.

"It has been a lot of fun. They are playing better team wise than in the past," said McMullin.

In 2006, the team only won two team matches. Ballard is 4 and 5 on the year.

"So are we have beaten every city team. We want to take city this year," said co-captain Reese Futrell.

Last Thursday, Ballard accomplished one of its goals by defeating Roosevelt 204 strokes to 234. This gave them the unofficial "city championship with wins over 4A teams Roosevelt, Garfield and Franklin.

The top six Beavers are Futrell, co-captain Sam Booth, Nick Palewicz, Erik Frank, Ross Upton and Nico Van Derven.

"We are really improved. We have a lot of the same guys as last year. We have a lot of new talent coming up. A couple of guys on the top six were not on the team before. We have made a lot of progress," said Booth, who made a hole-in-one last season against Eastlake on the West Seattle Golf Course.

Off-season time spent on the green has showed in this year's team performance. "Almost all the guys played a lot during the summer on their own time," said Booth.

Adding a new coach has been a plus. "He (McMullin) is a real pro so he gives us tips all the time, he is awesome," said Booth.

As a professional coach, McMullin emphasizes a good set-up with grip, posture, balance, club selection, ball position and alignment.

McMullin specializes in helping lower handicap players with their swing to improve their games.

Ballard has beaten Seattle schools, Garfield 211-277 and Franklin 201-286, as well as Roosevelt last week. Three of their losses were against eastsiders: Redmond, 188-216; Inglemoor 213-238; Bothell 193-20; and Woodinville 181-207.

McMullin is hoping the team finishes with a .500 record.

Futrell predicts all six starters can make it to the post season KingCo tournament. A few guys, he says, could make it to state.

"We've had an amazing season so far. We've played hard teams. We are jumping up to a whole new level. Everyday we are practicing or playing matches. We've closed the gap," said Booth.

The KingCo Tournament is Oct. 16-17 at the Snohomish Golf Course.

Dean Wong may be reached at 783.1244 or deanw@robinsonnews.com