Fresh off a state tournament appearance last spring, there’s plenty of optimism heading into the upcoming season for the Adel-Desoto-Minburn Tigers boys golf team. The Raccoon Valley Radio Network met up with the Tigers second-year head coach Kelly Roder Wednesday morning at the team’s indoor practice facility in Minburn to discuss storylines ahead of next week’s first official practice. Roder shares that four of his top six golfers from last year’s state run are returning in seniors Micah Moyer, Matthew West, Grant Curran, and junior Adam O’ Connor.

Roder tells Raccoon Valley Radio he’s planning on leaning on the quartet to provide scoring and leadership while the underclassmen compete for the varsity’s final two slots. He points to Moyer as an asset ahead of this season. ” (He’s) a good player to build a program around going forward,” Roder said, “(We’ll) compliment him with a good group of kids who played some (junior varsity) players who jumped into some eight-player tournaments with us last year.”

Moyer, who’s planning on continuing his golf career at Iowa Western Community College next year, averaged just over 79 strokes carded in 10-18 hole event last year. Roder adds there are seven players with tournament experience coming back for ADM this spring. Official practice starts this Monday, March 12, with the first competition scheduled for on April 5 in Nevada.