FORTVILLE — To put it plainly, Tom Kirby had no expectations heading into his first season as Mt. Vernon’s boys golf coach this spring.
An avid player and mentor to his grandson, Eli Lemmon, and granddaughter, Ressie Lemmon, on the golf course, Kirby admits to knowing more than enough about the game, but he’s far from an expert.
In fact, he had to sit down and conduct some preliminary research on the Marauders’ boys golf team prior to the start of the season.
“None. Absolutely, none,” Kirby remarked on his initial outlook for the 2021 campaign. “There was nothing from the year before to build on, and I had no idea who was there, who was playing or who would be coming out. I had zero expectations.”
An assistant basketball coach at Mt. Vernon for 23 years, the one thing Kirby did have under his coaching belt was a competitive drive, a natural patience with student-athletes and a willingness to work.
The Marauders shared their coach’s approach, and in turn, they produced one of the program’s best runs in recent memory following the lost COVID-19 pandemic season of 2020.
Mt. Vernon finished the 2021 season by capturing golf’s version of the trifecta, beginning with winning its 10th Hancock County team title in 12 years before seizing a program-first Hoosier Heritage Conference championship.
For added measure, the Marauders won their first team sectional title since 2016 by besting HHC rival New Castle by four strokes (315-319) at Hawk’s Tail of Greenfield in early June.
Not too bad for a first-year coach who was hired in late January, a mere months before the season commenced.
“It was really the leadership of the entire senior group and Sam McWilliams. Aden Cappelletti was by far and away my No. 2 player, and he was easily identifiable at that spot, and the seniors were really good with the younger kids,” said Kirby, the 2021 Daily Reporter Boys Golf Coach of the Year.
“The kind of boys that they are, they set good examples for younger kids and it really is what drives the whole idea of a team. It really does require seniors to be in that kind of a role. It was the senior leadership that made a difference in making things work so well.”
The timing was equally as important for Kirby.
In his retirement year from AMG Hamilton Heartcare, Kirby was able to situate a mutually-beneficial schedule with both Mt. Vernon athletics director Brandon Ecker and his employer of 16 years.
While practice times started later than usual some days, the Marauders didn’t fall short on effort, extending the season until the final day as McWilliams became the team’s first IHSAA individual state qualifier since Will Dant in 2016.
McWilliams went on to place 21st at the two-day, two-round state meet at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel last month, tying with four other golfers with a final score of 10-over-par 154.
The team’s sectional championship locked down the trophy sweep for Mt. Vernon, which netted all six spring team titles, though, there wasn’t any added pressure on the links.
“Pressure? No. There’s no pressure in golf. Golf is completely different. In fact, it’s just the opposite of most other sports where you’re trying to acknowledge pressure but deal with it rather than build on it and get your excitement level up or your adrenaline level up to go play,” Kirby said.
“In golf, you have to be in complete control of your nerves and you have to be able to swing a golf club through the nervous tension. If you don’t the results aren’t quite so good.”
For Mt. Vernon, the numbers were right on par.
McWilliams (2-under-par 70) and Cappelletti (5-over-par 77) both fired sub-80s at sectional to pace the championship lineup, while junior Kyran Maxfield and freshman Asher Cotton were right on target at 84s, respectively.
At The Players Club at Woodland Trails, the host site for both the regional and the HHC championships, McWilliams carded a 3-over-par 75 for second overall in the conference and Maxfield’s 82 proved paramount as Mt. Vernon beat New Castle 335-336 for the league title.
“I’ve won every conference that I’ve been in,” Kirby laughed. “One for one.”
With his first year completed, Kirby believes the Marauders won’t be one-and-done moving forward despite the loss of his top-two golfers due to graduation.
He’s already thinking about the future and where he knows he can improve as a coach.
“It’s more along the lines of what could have been if I had been sharper, more astute and had more experience. More along those lines of what we could have done had I caught on to a few things quicker,” Kirby said. “That’s really the disappointment for me there.
“I’m trying to put them in summer golf already just to help them realize that they need to get out and play in tournaments. And, some of them already have, so it’s encouraging.”
Maxfield and Cotton will be key contributors in 2022, Kirby said, and with the program’s standards now raised, there are cemented expectations obviously awaiting ahead.
“Some of them don’t think it’s a learning sport but as they get into it and figure it out, the light will suddenly come on and we’ll see some scores that might surprise some people, I think,” Kirby said. “I got a lot of young guys that want to play. There’s a lot of talent there to work with. All we have to do is hope they can find a decent coach.”
