Deep Deerfield squad a winner right out of gate

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Deerfield senior Ben Wiesnoski tees off during Monday's tournament at the Deerfield Golf Club. He shot an 81. The team took first. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Updated: October 19, 2011 4:20AM

Deep golf teams can overcome plenty of obstacles.

Exhibit A is the Deerfield High School boys golf squad, which captured first place in Monday’s Deerfield Invitational despite off-days from a pair of its top golfers.

The Warriors put up 293 strokes to hold off runner-up Libertyville (306) in the six-team event at Deerfield Park District Golf Course. Leading the charge for Deerfield was junior Colin Davis, who finished second with a 71; Libertyville’s Alex Quenan (69) won medal honors.

Davis, who was the Warriors’ No. 3 player, was joined on the scorecard by junior Ari Marks (73), senior Matt Loeffler (74) and senior Jack Silberman (75).

“Truthfully, all of our kids are pretty even,” said Deerfield coach Fred Dickman. “Colin was marvelous (Monday).”

The team received a big lift from Marks, who suffered a leg injury late last week and was a question mark until Sunday.

“Ari played nine holes with his dad on Sunday,” Dickman related. “I said, ‘I will leave it up to you because you deserve to play if you can.’ He said, ‘I want to play,’ and he wound up playing marvelous golf.”

Other Warriors who competed on Monday were Ian Kelsey (80) and Ben Wiesnoski (81).

Amazingly, this team is deeper than its top six.

“We had about four other kids who were not too far off in tryouts,” Dickman said.

The strong debut was not a surprise to the veteran coach.

“We encourage all our players to compete in the IJGA summer tournaments,” Dickman said. “They played a lot in the summer, and it paid off.”

Dickman believes the Warriors could have a banner 2011 campaign.

“The guys believe in themselves,” he said. “They’re a pretty close-knit group of boys. I told them, ‘This is the Deerfield High School team.’ I told them if they can remember that (the importance of team) and bond together, we’ll be successful.”

Deerfield returns to action when Evanston visits at 9 a.m. Friday. Three days later, beginning at 1 p.m., the Warriors will participate in the Lake County Invitational at Shepherd’s Creek in Gurnee.