It’s been a great year for boys sports at Seaside High School, with state playoff appearances in football and boys soccer, and of course another state title in basketball.

One team that’s always competitive: coach Jim Poetsch’s boys golf squad.

After winning state titles in 2014 and 2015, the Gulls are once again part of the state championship discussion.

Especially after their performance in the first two meets of 2018.

The Gulls came up 20 strokes short of state contender Valley Catholic in a dual meet March 21, and two days later, Seaside finished ahead of a field that included all 5A schools in The Dalles Invitational.

If they don’t win a state title this year, the Gulls will be right back in the running in 2019, with most of their golfers returning and more on the way.

The leader and lone senior for the varsity this season is Jackson Kunde, who placed ninth individually in last year’s district meet.

Rounding out Seaside’s usual top five are juniors Connor Merrell, Mason Shamion and Samson Sibony, along with freshman Curtis Kunde, who tied his brother Jackson for Seaside’s top score in The Dalles Invite.

After the loss to the Valiants, Poetsch said, “We had 14 double bogeys, two triples and two quadruples today. If we can turn those into bogeys, we win this match. Even with those holes, we are light years ahead of where we were at this time last season.

“All of our returners scored much better than their opening scores from a year ago and our freshman, Curtis Kunde, was able to get those first match jitters out of the way.

“Valley Catholic is a team I expect to compete for the state title in May, and they only got us by 20 on a day we gave 42 strokes away on blowup holes. As the season progresses, we will learn to limit damage and I expect we will have a very successful year.”

Junior Mason Crawford has also seen time with the varsity, while Seaside’s current junior varsity includes Chris Bodner, Leif DeWinter, Nick Mace and John Whittle.