All-RTC4 boys golf: Rans, No. 1 player on historic Pioneer team, is Player of the Year

Val T.
15 hours ago
3 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

More boys seemed to come out for boys golf this spring, and most schools seemed to be able to fully stock both a varsity and JV roster.

That’s a good sign and a sign that young people are not being priced out of the game. It will also create good competition within teams to make varsity rosters, which will lead to better golf overall. It is an attractive option for kids who do not play travel baseball or who might not be fast enough to make a dent on the track team.

Having said that, we did not have a superstar player in our area, and nobody from our area made state.

What we do is a trove of really good, really dedicated players. Not many of them are capable of shooting in the 60s or low-70s, but we have a bunch of people that live in the low-80s and can get somewhere between 75 and 77 on a good day.

So picking an RTC4 Player of the Year was not easy, but our pick is Pioneer’s Micah Rans. It was a historic year for the Panthers. First, they wrestled Winamac’s stranglehold in the Hoosier North to win the conference title.

Then, they beat Rochester in a dramatic tiebreaker to advance to the regional for the first time in school history.

Rans was Pioneer’s No. 1 player and shot clutch rounds all year. He was reliably consistent from tee to green.

We would like to thank area coaches for their assistance, whether it was sending us their scores or sharing their thoughts with us on the course.

One of the joys is getting to walk the course and getting to know the kids as athletes and people and getting to know the coaches as well.

Having said that, this list is ours and ours alone, and we take full responsibility for it. We put extra emphasis on 18-hole tournaments over the nine-hole tournaments, and we put extra emphasis on performance at conference tournaments and postseason tournaments.

Davis Renie Wes Parker Ethan Young Isaac Heishman

All-RTC4 boys golf

Micah Rans (Pioneer) – Rans won conference medalist honors with an 81. He added an 82 at sectional and an impressive 83 at the very tough Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte.
Davis Renie (Rochester) – Renie did not make the all-Three Rivers Conference team, but he bore down after that to make regionals as an individual, and he shot the lowest scorer of any area player at the regional with an 81. Renie, a senior who only took up golf seriously a couple years ago, has a smooth, athletic swing, and he is a savvy putter.
Wes Parker (Tippecanoe Valley) – Parker won Indiana Northern State Conference medalist honors and helped Valley roll to the team conference crown. All signs point to Valley having a big edge in the conference with players like Parker on the team.
Ethan Young (Tippecanoe Valley) – Parker might have had the better scoring average, but it was Young, a senior, who was the team’s low scorer at the Warsaw sectional. He finished second in the conference medalist race behind Parker.
Isaac Heishman (Rochester) – This was a very close call, but we will give the fifth spot on our team to Heishman, an all-TRC golfer who was Rochester’s No. 1 player all year long.