Lake Orion coach Monty Gallaher could not be more proud of his team. As 13 year coach of the boys team and with nearly 20 years experience with his girls, he has seen plenty of good golf and good players. That is why when his team hit an early season slump, his job as a Psychology teacher at the high school keeps his players focused and hardly discouraged. His team is ranked third in preseason golf polls in Oakland County golf but the team has not seen the scores show up on the golf course.
He has plenty of super players on his team but even more outstanding about his team is what positive young men they are. The Oakland Press video story done by myself shows you how they are taking the slump and what they plan on doing about it. Listen to Mason Gorris. He sounds like a future mayor to me. 
The story also appears in MIPrepZone at the Oakland Press.BOYS GOLF: Lake Orion hoping to create its own championship photo WITH VIDEO
Senior Mason Gorris and the rest of the Lake Orion golf team have been on a tear lately, winning the county tournament on Wednesday. The Dragons hope to qualify for the state tournament after near misses the last two years. (Oakland Press file photo/Vaughn Gurganian)It’s a photo from six years ago, which depicts the 2007 girls golf team posing with the state championship trophy after it won the Division 1 title that spring, the last spring before girls and boys flip-flopped seasons.
“I see it every day when I’m in gym class,” Lake Orion senior Alex Waelchli said. “It would be nice to have our picture up there. It would be neat.”
Judging by what’s taken place the last two weeks, chances have increased significantly that this year’s boys golf team at Lake Orion could add a picture of it posing with a state championship trophy sometime soon.
The Dragons finished in a tie for first at the NexTee Invitational on May 6, a field that included several ranked teams in the state, and then won their first Oakland County title this past Wednesday by 12 shots over the second-place team, perennial power Novi Detroit Catholic Central.
It’s been quite an ascension for a program that has had some solid teams in the past, but nothing like the juggernaut that appears to be developing at the moment.
“They are finally starting to hit their stride,” Lake Orion head coach Monty Gallaher said of his players. “Confidence is a huge momentum builder. Once you have that, you are on your way.”
Lake Orion has good reason to be confident with two important variables in place: A veteran team and motivation to avenge heartbreak.
As for the veteran team, it starts with the two seniors who have been on varsity since they were freshman, Alex Waelchli and Mason Gorris.
Waelchli, who has signed with Oakland University, has been on a tear of late, shooting a 67 in the NexTee Invitational at Oakland Hills and then winning medalist honors at the Oakland County tournament after shooting a 2-under par round of 70.
While Waelchli (pronounced Walk-ly) has been serious about golf for practically his whole life, it hasn’t been the case for his longtime friend Gorris.
More of a baseball player, Gorris said the summer before his freshman year of high school that he started to feel more of a passion for golf, but needed to step up his game if he was going to make varsity.
To help with that quest, he turned to the best teacher he knew, Waelchli.
It wasn’t a case where Waelchli was modifying his swing or putting stroke, but more just flanking him during practice sessions and giving him advice on nuances of the game such as course management.
“I started getting serious,” Gorris said. “Practicing around the yard, watching golf on TV and kind of getting in the mood. He would show me everything he could on the course to try and get better.”
It didn’t take long for the results to show up.
“He probably improved 10 shots better in a year,” said Waelchli, giving more credit to the work habits of Gorris than his own influence. “That is pretty much unheard of.”
As a result, Gorris made the varsity team as a freshman and the two have been lynchpins to build around ever since.
But there’s much, much more to the Dragons.
The team’s best player for the first two weeks of the season was actually junior Griffin Beeler, a three-year varsity standout who can lead the Dragons in scoring at any tournament or match they compete in.
Beeler shot a 70 in the first OAA Red tournament at Boulder Pointe and has essentially turned the Dragons into a team with three No. 1 golfers.
If sophomore Schuyler Werth, who shot a 77 at the Oakland County tournament, continues to play well, then Lake Orion will head to the most important part of the season with a team as deep as anyone in the state.
Of course, talking about the state tournament brings up the motivation the Dragons are playing with.
In each of the last two years, the Dragons have missed out on qualifying for the state tournament by one stroke at the regional tournament, which has definitely added fuel to their fire this spring.
“We really want to ensure ourselves that we can get into the state finals this year and have a good showing,” Gorris said.
Gallaher said another key to his team’s success so far this year is that his players have spent just as much time strengthening themselves mentally as much as with on-course skills.
“We took advantage of the bad spring,” Gallaher said. “We were not playing golf earlier, but were thinking golf. We were reading articles, we were talking strategy and at Lake Orion, we are fortunate to have someone who is a PhD in sports psychology. His office is about 10 feet from mine and my players stop by and talk to him every morning. It’s just contagious.”
It certainly has been so far for the Dragons, and if it stays that way, more room might have to be made for another championship photo in that hallway behind the gym.
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