ORHS Wildcats have unfinished business on the links
Scott Hinton will soon begin his second season as Oak Ridge High School’s golf coach.
Under his guidance, the Wildcats reached new heights.
But the coach and the program have some unfinished business as Oak Ridge looks to take the next step.
“My expectation is always the same,” Hinton said. “I want to make the regionals as a team.”
That’s a level that ORHS has never reached. The Wildcats, however, came close as they missed the region tournament by just a handful of strokes.
“My goal is always to reach the regional as a team, and we’ve never done that at Oak Ridge,” said Hinton. “We missed it by three shots last year.”
The Wildcats sent two individuals to regionals, as Lewis Niad and Jack Bentz qualified for the Region 2-AA Tournament in 2022. Bentz also reached the Class AA State Tournament and posted a Top 20 finish in Sevierville.
“Lewis and Jack made it to the region and Jack made it to state and he played really well,” Hinton said.
Bentz, now a junior, and Niad (a sophomore ) both return for the Wildcats, along with Hunter Hinton, a sophomore and Coach Hinton’s son.
“Jack played No. 1 last year and Hunter, my son, played No. 2,” Coach Hinton said. “Lewis played at No. 3.”
The trio of returners is joined by three newcomers, including junior Braden McNaughton and freshmen Jacob Disney and Braxton Pemberton.
“I lost two seniors last year, but the good thing about this is that I don’t have a senior this year,” Hinton said. “We have experience and we’ll have experience next year if they all keep playing.
“And I’m sure that Jack, Hunter and Lewis will.”
The Wildcats open the season in the 5 Star Preps Tournament, hosted by Christian Academy of Knoxville. The two-day event takes place July 28-29.
That begins a long tough slate of competition for Oak Ridge that includes dates against Maryville, Kingston, Hardin Valley Academy, CAK, and First Baptist Academy of Powell.
The Wildcats will also co-host the Cats and Dogs Tournament with Bearden. The 2023 edition of the event will be a Par-3 game at the Wee Course.
“I want to play against good competition, because the nine-hole matches usually go really fast,” Hinton said.
Oak Ridge and other teams throughout the Volunteer State only have a certain number of dates for competition, and the season-opening event takes up two of those dates.
The Lady Wildcats have two returners in 2023, as Kaiya Barnes (a junior) and Kaedyn Hollander (a sophomore) both return.
Last year was Barnes’ first season with ORHS as she transferred in from out of state.
She has aspirations to reach the regionals in 2023.
