De Soto High School may have lost its single state champion, but in the process gained three new replacements for its girl’s golf team.

Each girl has varying degrees of experience and skill.

“Over the summer I had golf lessons and that was it,” said freshman golfer Abby Smith.

On the other hand, Emma Neemann has a longer but less formal experience.

“I have played from fourth grade until now, but that has mainly been hitting balls randomly and nothing serious,” Neemann said.

Freshman Abi Powell enjoys the new experience and the quirky opportunities that come with it.

“There are a lot of people and it’s really fun to hit the balls into the lake,” Powell said.

Regardless of skill level, the team has been given chances to participate in events they may not usually qualify for.

“There are lots of tournaments and scrambles so everyone, even the people who aren’t course ready, have been able to participate in. So everyone’s been able to get involved, not just varsity or junior varsity and it is really exciting to get everyone involved,” Smith said.

In addition to growing in size, the team has also merged with Mill Valley High School to form one big team.

“Being able to practice with Mill Valley instead of just De Soto is fun,” Neemann said.

Due to tripling in size, the team’s strengths have grown too.

“Our strengths are that we work really hard during practice and since we practice every day we see improvement every day,” Smith said. “We all work together as well and really help each other.”

However, Neemann believes that the team needs to improve in its group ability.

“Our strength is probably in our individual competition versus our group competition. Those are scrambles and we haven’t been doing that well in those,” Neemann said.

The girls are excited for the years to come and have high hopes for future seasons.

“This year I am not on varsity so hopefully by next year I’ll be on varsity,” Neemann said.

Powell, Smith and Neemann plan to continue in golf for their high school careers.