City of Nevada starts Junior Golf League

No - it’s technically not a ‘Golf League’ per se, but City of Nevada’s Richard Brockman has future plans on showing the game of golf to the youngsters of Vernon County, and loves the idea of creating something for the kids.

“This is more like a camp this year,” quoted Brockman. “Next year, we plan on having two different groups, hopefully having a 6-13 year old group, and a 13-1 year old group in the future. We'd like to branch out. We're calling it league because if we can get more people involved, then we can schedule future tournaments. Hopefully some more other communities would get involved in this. That’s our long term goal. We hope to keep building this and growing the sport for the kids, the community, as well as the school district.”

Eight kids are involved in the program that started this summer, with just a few with prior gold experience. ”This is what this is for us to help them grow. This is a sport that they so choose to pursue either recreational or through the athletics of the school. We're still working on dates to compete against Fort Scott. We'll go over there and compete, and they’ll come over here and compete.There are still details to be worked out, but it will be a lot of fun.”

But it’s not just Brockman who’s in charge of this deal. Kim Severance, who is the Cottey Comets Head Golf Team Coach, as well as former Comets Head Coach Eric Cameron are also helping out by showing the basics of golf to these young athletes. “They have been the biggest supporters of this project,” Brockman said. “Those are the two that I initially talked with first aout this idea. They fully supported it, and are helping out in a lot of ways.”

And for the future of the Junior Golf League, Brockman states that this is something that will be around for a while. “Next year, we'll start in April and not so late in the season, and hopefully be able to finish up in June or July. We will be able to go to other places. The Frank E Peters Golf Course has been gracious enough to allow the kids to use a driving range and get a bucket of balls at no cost for them. Hopefully we will get more people involved and get this ball rolling.”