The Penn State Altoona golf team is entering its 10th year of competition this fall.
The team, lead by coach Tom Koehle, will also be trying to repeat as champions of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, a title the team has won the past three years.
Koehle, 28, will be leading the successful program as he has since being named head coach in 2004. Koehle, who was named AMCC Golf Coach of the Year in 2006, replaced coach Greg Johnson, who led the team from its inception in 2000.
Koehle, a graduate of Altoona Area High School, attended Penn State Altoona and was actually a standout golfer on the team before graduating in 2003. His golf administrative background includes working as an assistant pro at Sinking Valley and Toftrees before being named head pro at Huntingdon Country Club. The past two years, he has served as head professional at Iron Masters Country Club in Roaring Spring.
Koehle is looking forward to another good season from his team this year.
"Our top golfers should be two of our returners from last year senior, Jake Biltz and junior, Brad Behling," Koehle said.
Tryouts for the team were held this past weekend at the team's home course, Iron Masters. According to Koehle, 14 young men competed over two days in order to finalize the team. The result was a 12-man team consisting of four returning players and eight new golfers.
"We compete against teams like Frostburg State University, LaRoche College (in Pittsburgh) and Penn State Behrend in Erie," Koehle said.
Members of the team are required to practice up to six times per week. Most practices are basically practice rounds, but Koehle typically schedules at least one day each week to work on specifics.
"Each week, I like to focus on one particular area and work with each player on that," he said. "Some weeks we'll concentrate on wedge play and the next we might spend a day on the putting green working on putting fundamentals."
The regular season ends with a two-day conference championship held at a neutral site in October. This year's championship will be held at Tom's Run in Blairsville.
Koehle is optimistic about this year's team.
"Even though we have only four returning players, this might be our best team from top to bottom," he said. "The scores our players shot during tryouts were very encouraging. I'm looking forward to a good year out of our guys."
Being with the team for several years now, Koehle has been involved in recruiting nearly all of his current team. Competing as an NCAA Division III school, however, Penn State Altoona has some limitations that Koehle must overcome during the recruiting process.
Eight of the 12 players on the team are from Blair County.
"Being Division III means that we can't offer athletic scholarships," he said. "But there are so many other advantages to our school. It makes it easy convince someone to come here - the high quality education, proximity to our main campus and our competitive sports teams. like to recruit from the local area."
Senior Jake Biltz will be competing in his fourth year for the team. The Hollidaysburg native is working to complete his business degree.
"Penn State Altoona's golf team was one of the deciding factors for me when I was choosing a school," Biltz said. "I really like the fact that the campus expanded their curriculum to offer four-year degrees in the field I was looking at. I also liked having the opportunity play some competitive golf."
This year's team will have a reputation to live up to as Penn State Altoona has won the past three conference championships and qualified to play in the prestigious NCAA Division III National Championships held each May.
"Our director of athletics, Fredina Ingold, was the force behind starting our golf team 10 years ago, as well as many other sports here at Penn State Altoona," Koehle said. "I would like to think that offering sports like this is an asset to the university. I know that I have enjoyed coaching the many young students that have come through the program. I hope our success continues."
Team members include:
SENIORS Jacob Biltz, Jordan Albright, Michael Braniff.
JUNIORS Brad Behling, Lee Elder.
SOPHOMORES ?Chris Perry.
FRESHMEN John Bilo, Brock Dillon, Wes Elder, Corbin Personti, Michael Sheyd, Tom Trexler.
