Girls' Golf Team Entering Rebuilding Year

After losing her top two players from last season, Moorestown girls’ golf coach Charlotte Heenan said 2012 will be a rebuilding year.

Heenan will look to senior Sarah Jordan and junior Angelique Sweeney, her new No. 1 and No. 2 players, respectively, to lead the 12-member team. Both girls have been with the squad since their freshmen years.

“I’m looking for (Jordan) to be my leader, as well as my scoring leader,” said Heenan. “She’s worked really hard at her game, from a freshman who’d hardly played before.”

, Heenan’s former No. 1, graduated last year, and Kelly Hwang, her No. 2, transferred to the David Leadbetter Golf Academy.

Moorestown finished last season 7-4, qualifying for the state championships for the second year in a row, finishing fourth, Heenan said.

This year’s team has five brand new players, including three freshmen. They just began practice last Friday, with their first match scheduled for 3:30 p.m. April 2 at home (the ) against Old Bridge.

For the first time in its short history, the girls’ team this year will play within a conference, rather than as an independent.

Their inclusion in the conference—along with six other teams, mainly from northern New Jersey—gives the girls a “stability of schedule” they lacked previously, Heenan said. Also, “it gives Moorestown the credibility of, (we’re) not just that team from down south.”

Due to the dearth of girls’ golf teams in the southern part of the state—the only other team besides Moorestown is Cumberland, Heenan said—the coach acknowledged the teams up north are “far ahead” of their counterparts in the south.

And though Moorestown has never played several of the teams in this new conference, Heenan sounded confident her girls would be able to compete.

Heenan is being recognized later this month as a coach of the year by the NJSIAA (New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association). Check Moorestown Patch tomorrow for a full story.