Park Hill South’s girls golf team comes in with much turnover from the 2024 team that won districts and placed eighth at the state tournament.

The team is focused on the next chapter of the program and building for the future this season. In her 11th year as head coach of the team, Tracy Mangels wants to see her team gradually improve to put themselves in a good spot to compete at a high level towards the end of the season.

“We graduated a lot of players last year,” Mangels said. “So our expectation is to improve throughout the season and compete for the conference and district tournaments.”

South graduated two of last year’s four state golfers, including Brynlee Justice and individual district champion and state medalist Makenna Casey. The returning duo of Brooke Nichols and Kylie Ziller were both state qualifiers last year, and they hope to qualify again and improve their scores this year to move up the standings as seniors.

Mangels hopes to see Kate Yager, Tyler Murphy and Allie Toohig also make an impact on the team this year. She looks forward to seeing them and some younger players make significant strides after all the hard work they have put in over the offseason.

“Our strength will be the parity of the team,” Mangels said. “Competition for playing time will make everyone better this season.”

The Panthers’ season begins Labor Day weekend with an Aug. 29 visit to Country Creek Golf Club for the Ray Pec Scramble.