With Willie Dudley becoming the Fountain Hills Unified School District Athletic Director, a new coach has taken over the FHHS golf team and the former Division 1 coach is excited by the group of golfers he’s now guiding.

Jody Wilson picked up the game of golf when he was 30 years old and has been coaching the girls golf program for the past few years at Westwood High School.

Coming from Westwood to Fountain Hills Wilson has found that his FHHS team seems to get a lot more enjoyment from the game.

“At my old schools some of the players weren’t as interested in the game as they were a scholarship,” Wilson said. “The team here really likes to play. Like this past Saturday, a group got together to play for themselves.”

The Falcon golf team is eight strong this year with two juniors, two freshmen and four sophomores.

While some of the golfers may seem young, only one is green to the game and, for one of the freshmen, golf is in the family.

“One of our freshmen grew up with the game; his D\dad is the director at a course,” Wilson said. “He ended up qualifying in the third spot in our team for the upcoming match.”

The squad has been on the course since the beginning of February, working on, as Wilson puts it, “everything” but in particular the 13 rule changes the AIA made to the 2019 season.

“A lot of the rule changes made were logistical,” Wilson said. “Some of the golfers I have had to teach tournament golf to, which is just things like how to keep track of your score and how to keep your partners.”

Going into the season, Wilson’s goal is for his team to master the things that are within their power.

“I want them to really get a handle on the things they can control,” Wilson said. “Things like their integrity, their emotions and the willingness to come out every day and try their best.”

Wilson is hopeful that his team will make its way to the state tournament in a couple of months, but also wants to gauge the competition before setting sights too high for the first year.

“There are 54 teams in Division 3,” Wilson said. “Coming in from Division 1 and knowing nothing about the competition, I want to see what we are up against before making an unattainable goal.”

The Falcons’ first match was March 5 at Desert Canyon.