If you can play golf with frozen fingers, you can play it under any conditions.
Players on Airport’s boys golf team withstood frigid conditions during the winter months to hone their skills with a simulator in coach Willie Hammar’s barn.
“There were some chilly moments,” Hammar said. “There were some days when we almost had frostbit fingers.”
The work in December, January and February off in the spring, as the Jets won the Huron League championship and qualified for the state finals for the first time in school history.
Hammar has been named Monroe County Region Boys Golf Coach of the Year.
“It was an awesome feeling,” Hammar said of achieving the two historic firsts while compiling a 19-2 record. “It was very gratifying. The guys put in the work.
“All the hours they spent paid off. You think about all the times out in the barn where they couldn’t feel their fingers, then in early March when we were practicing with the wind blowing 30 miles per hour.”
At least during the winter months, the Jets didn’t have to worry about the wind.
“A friend gifted me a Trackman swing trainer that I put in my barn,” Hammar said. “We started out in December. I would have groups out there three times a week.”
There was limited heat in the barn, but at least the players got out of the wind.
In addition to working on their swings, the team built chemistry.
“It really helped,” Hammar said of the off-season get togethers. “We had a group of ninth through 12th graders, all at different maturity levels. We became a tight-knit group.”
Hammar knew he had one of his best squads in a decade of coaching the Jets.
“I knew we had a very good team,” he said. “I was cautiously optimistic. Then in our first (Huron League) jamboree, we finished third. That was unacceptable to me knowing the talent we had and the work these guys put into it. We laid an egg.”
Airport didn’t lose another league match the rest of the way, sweeping to titles in the second jamboree and the league meet to share the overall championship with Grosse Ile.
“We tied Grosse Ile on the last hole of the last jamboree,” Hammar said. “Cade Horner made a par on the last hole to seal it.”
Dramatics also were involved in Airport’s first trip to the state finals in school history.
The Jets tied New Boston Huron for the third and final qualifying spot out of the regional at Dearborn Country Club.
It went down to the fifth-score tiebreaker. Horner’s round of 90 gave Airport the edge.
The first four for the Jets were Brayden Siders (80), Landon McGregor (84), Evan Mullins (87) and Samuel Mitocariu (88).
Airport was tested again at the Division 2 state finals.
“The weather was terrible out there in Grand Rapids (The Meadows at Grand Valley State University),” Hammar said. “We had a four-and-a-half-hour rain delay. Mother Nature threw everything at us but snow.”
The Jets were fairly consistent with a round up 324 on Friday followed by a 330 Saturday.
“We were as high as fourth (place),” Hammar said. “We settled in between fourth and ninth most of the time. Then we had about a 30-minute stretch were everyone struggled.”
Airport finished in 13th place, but were just five strokes away from ninth.
“I was very happy with the team, even more so with all of the players coaches and parents who came up to me afterwards and commented at how poised and well mannered our guys were,” Hammar said.
This year’s success could be a springboard to even better things in the future. Mitocariu was the only senior to play at state. Siders and McGregor are juniors, Mullins a sophomore and Horner a freshman.
Golf is the second sport Hammar has coached at Airport.
He gained his greatest fame in bowling, where he owns 36 perfect games.
“I haven’t bowled in 22 years,” the 61-year-old said. “I joined an apprenticeship and worked afternoons. Life changes.”
After four years of coaching bowling at Airport, he shifted to the links.
“It’s been very gratifying,” he said. “This is my 10th year and it’s gone by in the blink of an eye.”
Family is the common theme between Hammar’s two coaching tenures. He had the opportunity to coach sons Colin (2017 graduate) and Casey (2019).
“There’s nothing like coaching your kid,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Airport’s Willie Hammar named Region Boys Golf Coach of the Year
Reporting by Niles Kruger, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Niles Kruger, The Monroe News | USA TODAY Network
