It’s time once more for boys golf in the Herald-News coverage area. Here’s what to keep an eye on.

East Suburban Catholic

Joliet Catholic

Coach: David Mondrella

Last season’s record: 6-4 (2-2)

Top returners: Quinn Swienton, sr.; Mario Gonzalez, sr.; Nick Eglizio, sr.

Key newcomers: Zach Zabel, jr.; Andrew Baltz, jr.

Worth noting: The Hilltoppers finished third at their conference tournament last season with Swienton finishing third as an individual. The team just missed the cut for sectionals, finishing fourth at regionals. Swienton qualified as an individual along with three other now graduated players. Swienton was the sole golfer to advance to state from there, finishing 74th. He and Gonzalez will be counted on to lead this year’s team.

Southwest Prairie Conference

Joliet Township

Coach: Britt Charley (second season)

Last season’s record: 5-7, 3-7

Top returners: Mitchell Fulayter, sr.

Key newcomers: Marcos Montes, fr.; Colin Morning, sr.; Leo Smith, Jr.

Worth noting: It’ll be a very young team compared to last season after Joliet Township graduated seven seniors. Fulayter was an all-conference golfer last year, so he’ll be counted on to mentor his younger teammates. He also was a sectional qualifier and should be a strong mentor for this group after the team finished sixth in conference and seventh in regionals.

Minooka

Coach: Jeff Petrovic (fourth season in current stint, 19th overall)

Last season’s record: 9-1

Top returners: TJ Quinn, sr.; Luke Purcell, sr.; Michael Kuchar, sr.

Key newcomers: Ethan Walsh, jr.; Lucas Heap, jr.

Worth noting: Quinn will be the leader of this year’s team after an outstanding summer. He qualified and played in the U.S. Junior Am, U.S. Junior PGA and Illinois State Am tournaments. He’s a Division I commit, having pledged to play at Wichita State. Petrovic said of this year’s group, “This should be another very solid team and we should be able to give conference another good run and make a postseason push.”

Plainfield Central

Coach: Darren Kobliska (18th season)

Last season’s record: 6-5

Top returners: Nolan O’Brien, sr.; Maddox Conner, sr.

Key newcomers: Kyle Perry, sr.

Worth noting: This should be a solid season for Plainfield Central. Connor was a sectional qualifier last year and had the second lowest 18-hole average on the team. O’Brien has three years of varsity experience. Perry is only technically a newcomer as he was with the team his first two years of high school before stepping away to focus on baseball last season. His return should help the team.

Plainfield East

Coach: Joe Young (11th season)

Last season’s record: 6-5, 5-5

Top returners: Josh Winterroth, sr.; Evan Orlet, jr..; Charlie Madden, jr.; Jacob Czerniak, so.; Jett Utrata, so.

Key newcomers: Trevin McConnell, fr.

Worth noting: Winterroth will be counted on to set the example after he was a 2023 all-conference selection. He’s in position to break the school scoring record and potentially become the Bengals’ first state qualifier. While everyone else is an underclassmen, they virtually all have experience from last season and were part of a four-win improvement in duals. Young believes this team could finish in the top three in conference.

Plainfield North

Coach: Mike Kneip (10nth season)

Last season’s record: 9-4, 8-2

Top returners: Casey Sanborn, sr.; Evan Lee, so.; Brad Ellinghaus, sr.; Jamie Mulder, sr.; Max Espinosa, sr.

Key newcomers: Sam Espinosa, fr.

Worth noting: Plainfield North had a season to remember, finishing second in the conference, third in regionals and it advanced to sectionals for the sixth consecutive year. The Tigers missed going to state by just two strokes. The return of Sanborn will bolster this unit after he qualified for state as an individual. Sanborn is a two-time all-conference selection. This will be a veteran group that Kneip thinks can compete for a conference title and even the regional crown.

Plainfield South

Coach: Tim Boe

Last season’s record: 2-8

Top returners: Jonah Powell, jr.; Henry Thies, sr.; Gavin Baxa, jr.

Key newcomers: Adam Tuck, jr.; Brett McCarthy, jr.; Braden Persico, sr.; Limmie Bailey, sr.; Lukas Floridian, sr.

Worth noting: The Cougars will have to make up for the loss of state qualifier Aiden O’Sulivan, but Powell was a sectional qualifier last seasoon. Thies and Baxa also have experience while many of the newcomers got their feet wet on the JV team last season.

Romeoville

Coach: Jeff Bambule (11th season)

Top returners: Ryan Uscilla, sr.

Key newcomers: Nolan Holgado, Karlos Otero, Aidan Lopez, Owen Belbis, Dominic Rizzatto

Last season’s record: 0-10

Worth noting: The Spartans will have a new-look team with five first-timers. Uscilla is the lone experienced returner after losing Danny Myers, Harrison Kolze and Tyler Noe to graduation. All three of those players were all-conference last year, so this year’s team will have a lot of ground to make up.

SouthWest Suburban Conference

Bolingbrook

Coach: Jeff Allen (10th season)

Top returners: Dylan Hoag, sr.; Anthony Jablonski, sr.; Mark Stanich, sr.

Key newcomers: Xandar Oh, sr.; Nate Stanek, so.

Worth noting: Allen expressed excitement over the new season. The three returning seniors all have varsity experience and are capable of scoring low. Allen said, “The Raiders play their home matches at the beautiful Bolingbrook Golf Course, which will host the LIV Individual Championship in September.”

Lincoln-Way Central

Coach: Ryan Pohlmann (ninth season)

Last season’s record: 8-3

Top returners: Brody Wall, so.; Connor Kelch, so.

Worth noting: The Knights qualified for sectionals and sent Ben Howey to state where he placed 16th. Replacing him won’t be easy, but Wall actually was the team’s No. 1 golfer throughout the season was a conference medalist. Kelch was the No. 3 golfer and Pohlmann believes both are capable of playing collegiately. They’ll be counted on to lead a young team this season.

Lincoln-Way East

Coach: Jim Nair (ninth season)

Last season’s record: 7-1

Top returners: Nico Mancini, jr.; Carmine Moccio, jr.; Blake Lord, sr.; Rory Moran, sr.

Worth noting: It was another solid year for the Griffins as they won the Schuman Cup Invitational and the H-F Co-Ed Classic. Mancini and Moccio were all-conference golfers, while Lord and Moran are team captains and should be key leaders. The experience should go a long way for Lincoln-Way East.

Lincoln-Way West

Coach: Daniel Szablewski (sixth season)

Top returners: Drake Been, jr.; EJ Dwyer, jr.; Colin Ladd, jr.; Chris George, jr.; Logan Knedlik, sr.

Key newcomers: Liam Wills, jr.

Worth noting: Last year saw the Warriors finish second in the conference, but with the divisions getting mixed together, it should be even more competitive than usual according to Szablewski. In six years at the helm, Szablewski says this is the deepest team he’s coached and expects big things out of Wills, who had a strong showing at tryouts.

Lockport

Coach: Matt Eber (13th season)

Last season’s record: 17-1, 4-0

Top returners: Alex Hareza, sr., Hayden Gusias, jr., Zack Skrzypiec, jr.

Key newcomers: Vygadas Srouga, sr.; Carlo DiOrio sr.; Rhett Mizwicki, jr.; Sean Goacher, jr.; Joe Eaton, so.; Kaden Downer, fr.

Worth noting: There will be a lot of pieces to replace from last season, but there’s a lot of success to build on. The Porters were conference, regional and sectional champions to qualify for their sixth state tournament in a row. They lost five seniors from that group, including two now golfing in the collegiate ranks. Eber expressed confidence that this year’s team will continue the run of success and win a third consecutive conference title. Eber said, “I have high expectations for this team and they are a hard-working group who are dedicated to improving their game, so I am looking for another great year from the Porters.”

Chicago Catholic League

Providence

Coach: John Platt (22nd season)

Top returners: Jonathan Schendler, jr.; Alex Hartman, jr.;

Key newcomers: John Kelly, jr.; Colton Pfieffer, so.; Nate Arkoush, sr.; Shane Bruin, sr.; Declan Kliemac, sr.

Worth noting: Schendler and Hartman return after gaining valuable experience on varsity last year. Kelly will be the No. 3 golf and Pfieffer will be the No. 4, while the three seniors will battle it out for the No. 5 and 6 spots. Platt’s been doing this long enough to know what he has and he feels this group is good enough to be competitive with other area teams.

South Suburban Conference

Lemont

Coach: Mark Hollatz (30th season)

Last season’s record: 12-0

Top returners: Joey Scott, jr.; Matt Devoy, sr.; Aiden Peonard, sr.; Jack Noetzel, jr.

Worth noting: The good news for Lemont is the team did better than any team in the area last season. The bad news is they have to replace a pair of Division I golfers in the departed Eddie Scott (Navy) and Robby Politza (Valparaiso). Joey Scott, however, was an All-State golfer who won three tournaments, including the JTP Invite in which he scored a 63. Lemont won the conference title for the 20th year in a row, won the regional and won the sectional before finishing second at state. That was after finishing fourth in back-to-back years. Hollatz acknowledged replacing Joey Scott and Politza would be challenging, but the team still hoped to compete at the state level.

Illinois Central Eight Conference

Coal City

Coach: Harlan Kennell (eighth season)

Last season’s record: 6-3, 5-1

Top returners: Griffin Winke, sr.; Culan Lindemuth, sr.

Key newcomers: Jaxon Duke, fr.; Frankie Ponio, fr.

Worth noting: 2023 was a successful year for the Coalers, finishing second in the conference, fifth at regionals and sending two golfers to state. Kennell expects the team to compete for the conference title, but he’s equally as excited for the future of the program with 10 freshmen on the roster.

Wilmington

Coach: Mike Wilson

Top returners: Joey Lewsader, jr.; Caius Drown, jr.

Worth noting: Wilson believes his junior pair has what it takes to make the all-conference team. Wilson will be handling the girls coaching duty, too.

Peotone

Coach: Bill Sander (sixth season)

Top returners: Joe Hasse, sr.; Josh Barta, sr.; Donavan Esquilval, sr.; Evie Bush, fr.

Worth noting: Petone finished with a winning record last season before taking third place in the ICE conference tournament. Hasse was the leader, qualifying for sectionals in his penultimate season. This year’s squad fields 12 golfers, including a freshman girl. Sander said, “We hope to be competitive in the conference and qualify a couple of players to sectionals and maybe to state.”

Reed-Custer

Coach: Ryan Marketti (second season)

Top returners: Kyle Highland, sr.; Chandler Lowe, sr.; Logan Bean, so.; Kaitlyn Lantka, so.; Harlie Liebermann, so.; Jakob Sandstrom, so.

Key newcomers: Addison Brown, sr.; Caedon Baumgartner, fr.; Josh Creger, fr.; Hailey Compton, so.

Worth noting: It’s year two for the Reed-Custer program’s rebirth. They were unable to field a whole team last year and didn’t win a match, but that’s how the process goes when you’re starting back from scratch. Highland was an all-area and all-conference selection last year and will be counted on to lead this year’s group. A season of experience should lead to better results on the greens.

Interstate 8 Conference

Morris

Coach: Mike Muntz (sixth season)

Last season’s record: 8-6, 3-2

Top returners: Liam Eber, sr.; Brody Brandt, sr.; , Connor Barth, jr.

Key newcomers: Kohen Gross, sr.; Jace Scalf, jr.; Brycen Johnson, so.; Braden Wickkiser, fr.

Worth noting: Eber was a state qualifier last year and will be counted on to lead the team. Brandt is in his second year of competition and will be looking to make his own run to state. Barth was a state qualifier in tennis. Morris will be replacing some two of its top golfers after the program qualified for sectionals for the third time in eight years. There will be a lot of new and inexperienced players, but Muntz expressed confidence this group could make it back to regionals for the second straight year.

Tri County Conference

Seneca

Coach: Bryan Erickson (15th season)

Last’s season record: 11-6, 4-3

Top returners: Grant Siegel, sr.; Keegan Murphy, sr.; Ryker Terry, sr.; Cooper Thorson, so.; Raiden Terry, so.; Cody Malak, so.

Key newcomers: Vincent Corrado, jr.; Zander Newberry, jr.; Trent Powell, fr.; Hudson Hartwig, fr.

Worth noting: Seneca is in an excellent position entering the 2024 season. They return all six starters from last year’s team, half of whom have three years of varsity experience. Add in that Erickson believes he has six players genuinely worthy of the five and six spot, and you have a deep squad to get excited over. Erickson said the goal is to qualify for sectionals for the first time in “a number of years.”