CALEDONIA — Parker Humber feels there is no denying the talent on the Caledonia High School boys golf team.
Before you think the junior is a little too confident about the abilities of the 10 players on the squad, consider Caledonia shot a 304 last week at Lion Hills in Columbus to beat Kosciusko and Houston to win the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A, Region 3 title. The score, which Caledonia coach Bradley Tate said was the best his team has shot in his 10 years as its coach, secured the squad a place in the Class 4A State tournament on May 4-5 at Diamondhead Country Club in Diamondhead, which is between New Orleans and Gulfport/Biloxi on Interstate 10.
Humber hasn’t been around as long as Tate, but he has been with the team since the sixth grade, so it is fair to say he has a great perspective about what Caledonia has the chance to accomplish next week when it plays for a state championship.
“We’ve got the talent to shoot a lot better than that,” Humber said. “This is the best team we have had since I have been here.”
Humber said it was a “big deal” for Caledonia to shoot a 304 in its next-to-last tournament of the season. He said the Confederates have embraced Tate’s notion that the team doesn’t have players relegated to certain spots in the lineup. Instead, he and his teammates agree with Tate that the Confederates have five No. 1 players who are asked to keep their focus and to play their best rounds possible.
Tate said he talked with the players a few weeks ago at Lion Hills about that idea and encouraged them not to worry about where they were in the lineup and to focus on playing as well as they can every time out.
“Parker Humber is taking one for the team in the essence that he is playing No. 5 not because he is the five player, but because that five spot is a mentally tough spot to play,” Tate said.
Humber smiled when asked about the challenges he faces playing at No. 5. He said he has learned to stay patient and to play his game and not to allow the scores of other players in his group to affect his play.
Humber hopes he will be able to do that next week and be a part of an even better score. He said he should have shot a lot better last week, and that that showing motivates him and the rest of the team to shoot as many as eight shots lower next week.
Caledonia came close to realizing its best possible effort last week, as it shaved four strokes off a 309 it carded the previous week in Corinth. Eli Taylor and Hunter Logan paced the Confederates with 74s, while Elijah Hemphill shot a 75, Parker Humber carded an 81, and Dylan Darling shot an 83.
Humber and Hemphill, a senior, agreed with Tate that the team has the ability to crack 300. If that happens, Tate and the players feel they will have a chance to knock off St. Stanislaus.
“Everybody did what they were supposed to do,” Tate said of the team’s performance at the region meet. “A majority of them have a goal and know what they are supposed to shoot.”
Last season, St. Stanislaus won the Class 4A State championship. Caledonia finishes second. All of the Confederates believe this could be the year they win a title as long as everyone continues to do their job and doesn’t get overconfident.
Hemphill didn’t know the team had as good a round as it did at the region meet, but he, too, believes in the potential of everyone to play even better. He said the talk Tate had with the team halfway through the season helped everyone re-focus and to understand the importance of not being selfish.
“We started being a team and playing together (after the talk),” Hemphill said. “This team has gotten better every year. Last year, we came in second to St. Stanislaus. The year before that we were fifth, so we are getting higher and higher every year. That has been motivation for us to do even better this year.”
Hemphill will play next season at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba. Caledonia has sent several golfers to Scooba in the last few years, including Hal Larkin, a Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) All-State second-team member, and Zac Taylor. He feels the tradition will continue because Caledonia High has a talented group of juniors. He feels several of those individuals have the potential to go on and play in college.
“I am thankful I get to EMCC to play,” Hemphill said. “I have been putting in a whole lot of work for four-and-a-half years. I have been working my tail off out here almost every day, practicing and trying to get better. I am happy for the experience coming.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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