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Wall Street to Yee-Haw covers talented Bison team
McCOOK, Neb. — The stock market shouts “buy-buy-buy!” McCook boys golf even as coach Joe Vetrovsky jams to some Florida-Georgia Line on another victory drive home.
“We know coach is happy when he’s jamming out,” three Bison golf seniors proclaim about prospects that keep going up with another team championship at Holdrege on Tuesday.
They’re steamrolling down the season’s home stretch while leaving just about everything — including one slightly too daring highway pheasant — in their wake.
“We thought he might be stuck under the hood for awhile,” Vetrovsky admitted.
The Bison basically treated last week’s Ron Coleman Invite sudden-death playoff in similar fashion.
Facing 2019 Class B state champion York , the Bison barely blinked while driving a straight line to that awesome team title at Heritage Hills.
“We really kind of kicked their butts,” senior Brady Esch said. “It was great because York has a good golf team every year.”
“We have two conference tournaments coming up (Southwest, GNAC),” senior Payton Craw added. “We have a good chance to win both.
Mason Michaelis — who completes this senior trio— certainly knows about championships after winning back-to-back Class B tennis singles titles during these past two autumns.
Michaelis credits tennis for hand-eye coordination which helps him “rarely shank a shot”.
Yet it’s the focus that makes the difference.
M.M. doesn’t need country hits or hip hop or Metallica songs to fuel his game.
“That kid will make more money before he’s done with high school than I might make my whole life,” Esch said. “When he has his headphones on, we know what he’s listening to.”
“I want to be day trader,” Michaelis admitted as he follows daily financial markets. “My dad and I took a class about down in Tampa. I’m definitely interested.”
Plus these Bison bring an interesting diversity into leading the golf team.
Esch started on McCook’s football offensive line last fall, grinds away most days in shop class but also showed he can be quite the golf game salesman.
“Hey, I basically grew up on the 15th green here (at Heritage Hills),” he said. “I would chip and putt out there at all times of the day. Golf has always been my favorite.”
He used that love to recruit another golfer who was planning on following his brother’s pole vaulting footsteps.
“Yeah, I was going to vault just like my brother (Kyle),” Payton Craw said.
“I talked to that kid every day about joining the golf team,” Esch said. “We played youth football, basketball, everything together. I knew with the athletic talent in that family, he would pick the game up fast.”
Sure enough — just like his mastery of the Fortnite video game and understanding important relationships — Craw has adapted smoothly to playing golf rather than pole vaulting.
As a sophomore, Petyon helped McCook quality the entire team into Class B state.
The results have only gotten better even despite last year’s disastrous season-destroying pandemic.
“We still played out there (at the Hills) every day,” Esch revealed.
“There was nothing else to do...but still no tournaments.”
“Sad,” Craw succinctly said.
Not sad at all this spring.
On Friday, Craw won the Coleman Invite championship when he shot 79. He’s hit lower scores this fall and clearly enjoys his decision to be part of this Bison golf team.
“Definitely,” Craw confirmed. “And it’s fun to play for a guy like coach (Vetrovsky). He’s always positive. He doesn’t get angry and take it out on his players and we appreciate that. We want to send him out in his style.”
Vetrovsky has become McCook’s new head football coach, so his three-season stint leading Bison boys golf will end in late May — hoping at Columbus for another Class B state tournament.
“It’s been a joy to coach these guys, they are great leaders by example,” he said.
The Bison captured Tuesday’s Holdrege Invite with a 340 which was five strokes better than Aurora.
Craw shot 81 on a blustery day to capture fourth place, Michaelis earned seventh (84) and Esch took 12th (86).
Junior Hunter Hansen’s 89 again completed the winning total for McCook.