There are many spring sports at North Atlanta High School. For any Warrior athlete on the team, participation means combining a love for the game with intense competition. There are 12 varsity golfers, seven players on the men’s golf team and five players on the women’s team. The men’s team is led by seniors Taylor Walstrum and Turner Hune. The women’s team is led by junior captains Elizabeth Ray and Helen Fialkowski. Both teams are coached by Coach Kerry Sarden, a physical education teacher, who also doubles as a girl’s varsity basketball coach.

The teams have greatly benefitted this season by stepping up their respective game, and improving on last year’s middle-of-the-road results. Both the men’s and the women’s teams practice from Monday through Thursday at Ansley Golf Club and the Bobby Jones Golf Course off Northside Drive. The four-day-a-week practice regimen sets up the linksmen and linkswomen for monthly tournaments often held on Saturdays.

During the season, both the men and women’s teams competed in four tournaments. Recent tournaments include the Packer Invitational in Moultrie, the Johnny Paulk Invitational in Jekyll Island, and First Tee invitational in Atlanta in the East Lake Golf Club. The men placed third in the Packer Invitational and sixth in the Johnny Paulk Invitational. The team’s renown was noticed by the organizers of the prestigious Atlanta Athletic Club. Every year the club holds an invitational and invites the state’s top 18 men’s teams and the top 50 women’s teams. Both Warrior golf teams were invited to this year’s tournament which was held on March 31.

After the four tournaments early in the season, the Regional tournament arrived in April for the teams. In an amazing sweep, the men’s and women’s teams both placed first and qualified for the State tournament. It was the first time in North Atlanta history for both varsity teams to qualify for state.

The addition of freshman to the men’s team have led to lower team scores for this season. Newcomers Winston Meshad and Jack Minitsky have racked up impressive scores and it’s expected that both will contribute heavily in ensuing years.

“All the added depth these guys have brought has been a big help this year and we know that they’re just going to get better in the future,” said team captain Walstrum, whose superlative play has garnered the interest of collegiate golfing teams. He recently signed an athletic scholarship to play golf at Point University in West Point, a private college near LaGrange that plays in the NAIA’s Appalachian Athletic Conference.

The Warrior golf teams will finish the season on May 19 in Augusta, Georgia for the State 5AAAAA tournament.