Forest Park girls golf fields score for first time in years

Forest Park’s golf season opened with a result that said as much about participation as it did about placement. At the North Central Invite at Highland Golf Course in Bark River on May 1, the Trojans’ boys finished second overall, and the girls posted a team score for the first time in at least five years.

That mattered because Forest Park was not just filling spots on a card. Under head coach Ashley Schober, the school put out both boys and girls lineups for the meet listed on the Forest Park Schools calendar as GOLF @ Highland-North Central = Boys and Girls 9CST, and the girls side had enough players to count as a team again. In a small program, that is the kind of threshold that determines whether a season becomes sustainable or remains a collection of individual efforts.

The boys gave Forest Park an early competitive footing. Noah Starr and Eli Brzoznowski each shot 41 over nine holes, helping the Trojans land second in the field. The scores showed the boys program still has enough depth to contend early, even in a cold meet against North Central competition at a familiar Upper Peninsula golf site.

The girls’ result carried the greater long-term significance. Addee Hagglund led the way with a 60, while freshman Josie Anderson competed for the first time and gave the season one of its clearest markers of promise. Forest Park had not produced a girls team score in at least five years, so simply getting five golfers onto the course and into the standings marked a meaningful step toward rebuilding the program.

That step also fit the school’s broader golf history. Forest Park’s athletics records show a long run of boys conference championships and a strong girls legacy that includes titles in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008 and 2009. The current girls roster is not creating something new so much as trying to revive a once-established tradition.

Highland Golf Course in Bark River has long served as a setting for local golf competition, and Forest Park’s opener suggested why early-season meets there matter. The boys already showed they can score, and the girls took the first concrete step toward becoming a lasting team again.