Four head to state tournament

It took 22 years, but now a Warrenton boys golf team is heading once again back to state.

After a third place finish at the 3A/2A/1A Special District 1 Tournament, the four man team that includes two seniors – Calvin Olson and Tyler Simonsen, sophomore Jackson Bellone and freshman Gavin Brown, qualified for next week’s state tournament, starting May 19. Their total team score of 696 was almost an 80 shot improvement from when co-head coaches Cody Mullins and Lane Evans started working with the team in 2023.

Since Warrenton is known as a baseball town, people in the community might not be as aware of the golf team. And, as a small school, it’s been difficult for the Warriors to field a consistent five-person team, which makes this season’s result all the more special.

This year’s team came together through word of mouth and circumstances. Olson has been on the team since 2023 and recruited his friend Simonsen in 2024. They were soon joined by Coast Guard kid Bellone, who moved to the area last year, and finally Brown joined as a freshman this year. Brown is the only member of the team who grew up playing in youth tournaments; the others have had to work hard to reach their goals.

“The best finish at state ever for Warrenton is eighth place,” Mullins said. “So that’s sort of our goal as a team this year … we want to match or beat that. The kids are really excited for the week.
“We’ve improved by 40 strokes a player in the last two years,” Mullins said. “Much of the work is done by the boys outside of practice. Weekends, after school – this group really wants to be good and they’ve put the work in to reach this point.”

Seeing Warrenton qualify for the state tournament is especially rewarding for Mullins, as he is a graduate of the high school. The last time Warrenton qualified for the state tournament he was a student at the high school – he said some of his old friends from the last state qualifying team have already reached out about this year’s accomplishment.

“I’ve heard from some of my friends who were on that team,” Mullins said. “It’s really cool to reach state and feel the support from the community. They’ve done so much letting the boys golf anytime and anywhere they want.”

Another impressive aspect of this year’s team is the ability to make state with only four players.

At the high school level, teams are allowed to field five golfers per tournament. With only four total golfers the Warriors don’t have the luxury of having bad days – whatever they score as a team is what counts.

“That makes it all the more impressive,” Mullins said. “Because you aren’t afforded the margin for error that most other teams have with an extra player.”

Though the Warriors reached state on the backs of their players, they wouldn’t be in this position if not for the coaches.

Both Mullins and Evans are club professionals at Astoria Golf and Country Club. They were asked to be coaches just one week before the start of the 2023 golf season.

“The previous coach left,” Evans said. “So we were asked by the former Athletic Director if we wanted to do it. He came in and said ‘golf starts in a week and we need coaches.’”

Because of their schedules at the Country Club, the duo take turns coaching. Evans had no coaching experience prior, while Mullins had some. According to Evans, this season is special, too, because Olson is the last remaining member of their original 2023 team.

“A big part of coaching is motivating,” Evans said. “Early on we saw the potential in these kids and had to tell them to believe in themselves since they weren’t sure how good they could be.”
Mullins said the co-coaching system has paid off. “Having two sets of eyes actually works out better,” he said. “For one kid, Lane might get his point across better than I do, while another kid might not understand how Lane is putting something and they get the point across from me.”

Evans and Mullins hope the success of this year’s golf team will lead to more boys wanting to come out for the sport. As former baseball players, they know it will be difficult to compete against the baseball program in spring sports, but they are asking their standout freshman to recruit some of his friends for future years.

“We’ve tasked Gavin with trying to get some friends out over the summer and get some interest that way,” Mullins said. “It might be that we need to reach out to the middle and high school in the fall. It’s a matter of getting kids to see golf from a different perspective.”