Hewitt is Post-Tribune girls golf coach of the year

Updated: October 17, 2011 7:45PM

Dale Hewitt learned something about his Chesterton girls golf team during an early September dual meet against Valparaiso at the Valparaiso Country Club.

The Duneland Conference round-robin title was on the line, with both teams entering the matchup with undefeated overall and conference records. The problem for Chesterton was it was playing without standout Kelly Grassel, who, less than a month later, captured the individual state title.

The Trojans pulled out a one-shot victory over the Vikings, who still had the services that day of their top player and one of Grassel’s friendly rivals, Harley Dubsky.

“That was one of the bigger moments of the year,” said Hewitt, the Post-Tribune 2011 girls golf coach of the year. “That was something. We were definitely underdogs that day. Kelly’s a great athlete, but we are a team. We have some excellent players besides Kelly. I knew they could do it.”

Chesterton went on to finish sixth at the state girls golf tournament at Legends of Indiana Golf Course in Franklin. The Trojans advanced to the second day of the state tournament for the first time in school history.

“As far as goals, we basically reached them,” Hewitt said. “We wanted to win the DAC, win sectional, make it to state, and make it to the second day of state.”

Hewitt knew he had a solid team returning this year, led by Grassel. Marissa Kroeger and Stephanie Drake were two key returnees Hewitt could count on. But he needed a fourth.

“Last year, we had several kids fighting for the fifth and sixth spots on the team,” Hewitt said. “I needed one of those kids this year to step into the fourth spot.”

And he got that in junior Nicole Dutz.

“She worked really hard during the off-season, and she filled that spot for us,” Hewitt said. “She played No. 4 for us all season. Some day’s she wound up in that third slot, and on others she had our second-best score.”

That proved out at an early season tournament where an opponent had three players score 78 but Chesterton still scored better because of its strong scores from top to bottom.

“Their fourth score was well over 100,” Hewitt said. “You need to have four.”

Chesterton’s four was almost good enough to earn the Trojans medals and a spot on the podium at the state tournament. They were tied for fourth, which would have made the podium, after the first day, but wound up two shots off in the end.

“We gave it a real good run,” Hewitt said.

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