The team was led by Coach Joe Kessler and its no. 1 starter Chris Warner.It’s also the second time it won all five major events: the Olympic Conference, Burlington County Open, Carl Arena Tournament, the Sectionals and the state championship.
The only other time Shawnee won the state championship was under coach Bob Thorpe in 2004.
Going into the year with five seniors in its starting six, coach Joe Kessler, who doubles as a math teacher, knew his team was poised to have a good year. That is, until disaster struck.
“I kind of knew we were going to be a good team, but then our №1 player, Chris Warner, broke his elbow in the winter running winter track. In fact he had to sit out eight weeks. He sat out the first three weeks of the season,” Kessler said. “An injury like that you don’t know how well he’s going to play when he comes back. It took him a couple weeks … [to get] his groove back.”
“I broke my elbow in half,” Warner said. “I tore the ligament in half. I needed elbow surgery the next day and have permanent screws in my elbow. It took about 15 or 16 weeks to fully heal.”
Warner worked his way back to being the №1 player on the team, screws in his elbow and all. He even finished second individually out of a total of 116 players from all of the best schools at the state championships. He shot a 71, which was one under par.
His score was particularly impressive due to the weather that day. It was raining heavily and the course was wet.
“I just tried to keep my mind sharp and not complain too much about the weather,” Warner said.
He thanks his coaches, both track and golf, along with his parents and teammates for helping him get through the injury.
While Warner was the group’s №1 player, Kessler found it difficult to rank the rest of the players. In addition to Warner, the team consisted of Jack Sterbenz, Evan McNally, Kyle Quagliero, Cameron Wagner and Jordan Torres. All of the players were seniors, save for Quagliero, who was the lone junior.
“We’re all right there with each other,” Warner said. “We’re a really deep team, which helps us in the long run.”
“These guys were so well balanced, my biggest challenge was to put the right guys in the lineup. They’re all very good. You hope you’re putting the right lineups together to give you the best chance to win,” said Kessler, who is also the head coach of the basketball team.
All of the seniors plan to play club golf in college, except for Warner, whose goal is to make West Chester University’s golf team as a starting freshman.
