Ritzville Girls Team To Beat Prep Golfers Swing Into Action In Trio Of State Tournaments

While the Ritzville golfers are chasing birdies today at Liberty Lake, most every other golfer in the field for the State A/B golf tournament will be chasing Broncos.

Ritzville, the two-time defending girls champion, has qualified five golfers for the two-day, 36-hole girls tournament that begins this morning. <

While the girls play at Liberty Lake, the boys are at MeadowWood. The State AA tournament is in Yakima and the State AAA is in Tacoma as championship week begins for spring sports.

Angela Gibler will be the toughest Bronco to tame. Only a sophomore, Gibler is a two-time District 7 champion and she finished fourth at state last year.

Right behind are senior Marci Kison, making her third trip to state, and sophomore Emily Ulleland, making her first. They tied for second in the district tourney, just ahead of junior Katie Kirkendall, who plays at state for the second time.

Rounding out the team, if she can make it after being bedridden two days with the flu, will be junior Robyn Telecky.

Last year, Telecky finished seventh at district but was only sixth on her team. Only five players from one team can participate at state.

What makes the Broncos even more impressive is the fact that the girls program is only 5 years old. Previous trips produced fourth- and second-place finishes before the two championships.

The Ritzville boys have fared almost as well, collecting two firsts, a second and a third in the last five years, though only one qualified this year.

Obviously, the Broncos have a secret.

“Just a wonderful coach, I guess,” coach Ron Barker said, laughing, “with a great sense of humor.”

But seriously, folks, it does help to have a coach that is a PGA golfer, said Barker, the PGA pro at Ritzville. Barker started the junior program, for prospective players between 7 and 10, 14 years ago. The young Broncos grew up and busted out of the chute six years ago. i

“What it amounts to is simply this, there is a strong junior program in Ritzville, and they start when they’re 7 years old. By the time they get to high school, they have a lot of experience playing golf in the junior program,” Barker said. “I get 30 to 40 kids every year between 7 and 10, evenly split between boys and girls.”

It’s not as if Barker is stealing all the best athletes in a small community. Ritzville has very strong spring sports programs.

“This has been good for the community,” Barker said. “They love these kids. We have some great track teams. They get behind all their programs… . It’s kind of neat.

“We’re a B school and we have to compete with A schools. Not bad for a tiny town. And, it’s not like we’ve done it with the same kids every year. We’ve rotated kids out and still maintained the program.”

With just one senior set to graduate, the Broncos could be tough to bust again next year. That’s before Barker mentions the eighth grader that could be as tough as any of them.

It may be a while before anyone tames the Broncos.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TOURNAMENT TIME State A/B tournament at Liberty Lake, MeadowWood State AA tournament in Yakima State AAA tournament in Tacoma