The 2025 season for the Macomb High girls golf team proved to be one for the books.
The Bombers reached the Illinois High School Association Class 1A State Finals for the seventh time in program history, finishing 10th overall.
“We just got on an amazing run at the end of the year,” said MHS girls golf coach Brian Sullivan.
“What we did last year was really difficult,” he added. “We went five weeks without really winning anything. Then we won our conference tournament and we just got on a really good run at the end of the year.”
“It’s really hard to keep kids motivated and believing when you’re not winning,” Sullivan said. “We were doing fine, but we weren’t winning. It’s really hard to keep a team believing that they can do it when they’re not getting that re-enforcement of affirmation during the season with wins.”
As 2026 begins, aspirations remain high for the Bombers and Sullivan.
But it will not be easy. “We have the talent to do some really good things,” said Sullivan. “But that is always a little worrisome as a coach because we don’t have a lot of kids that have been there multiple years.”
Top players Brenlee Tibbitts and Sophie Wilson graduated, along with Elise Sullivan and Lillie Lowe.
“We’re losing a lot of heart and a lot of experience with those players,” said Sullivan of last year’s seniors. “They just never gave up and we didn’t give up on them. It allowed us to be in a position where things fell our way.”
As the new season begins, MHS does return a number of players with varsity experience.
Leading the way is senior Mullen Butcher, the team’s only four-year varsity player and only four-year member of the program.
Five players enter their second season.
Returning are sophomores Reese Watson and Taylor Mann, who stepped into important varsity roles as freshmen.
“They should be coming back with a lot of confidence,” said Sullivan. “It should be easier for them, the ones who went through that run last year. But they do need to fill that void of heart and determination that that group (of seniors) had last year.”
Senior Aubrey Holthaus, who made the switch from tennis to golf a season ago is also back. But she is currently sidelined, recovering from left hand surgery and does not look to be playing anytime soon.
“She is in the worst part of an athlete’s recovery process, the waiting stage,” said Sullivan. “I never want to doubt an athlete like her and her ability to recover quickly and come back.”
“She’s going to be with us and she’s going to be a part of our team,” he added. “We’re just really crossing our fingers that she can get back in time to play at the very end of the year.”
“Until then, we have six other players that are going to try to fill those three other spots on our varsity squad,” said Sullivan.
Also returning for the program this season are sophomore Grace O’Hern and senior Emrey Seward.
Newcomers in junior Lilyan Schmalshof, sophomore Braelyn Powers and freshmen Kennedy McGraw and Emma Rigg round out the roster.
“We had a really competitive two days of qualifying,” said Sullivan, noting that McGraw and Rigg will have an opportunity “to show what they can do.”
“We’re going to need everybody to try to fill in those open spots,” said Sullivan. “We do have a chance to be pretty good, but we also took a pretty big hit with Aubrey not being able to play.”
The schedule provides a mix of competition with eight of the first 10 scheduled events away from home.
Unlike last season’s slow start, Sullivan is looking for more significant progress early on and for the team to be more competitive in tournaments, noting that the girls have put in a lot of work.
“We’re definitely going to use our past experiences to help us,” said Sullivan. “We’d be silly not to. I think we can really use this next month and a half to get us in position to do something pretty cool in the postseason.”
He also likes having the opportunity of playing closer to home against high calibre competition like Quincy Notre Dame and Illini West.
“I like that there’s some really good teams in our area that we get to play a lot,” said Sullivan. “It should motivate us to stay hungry so that we can stay up with them.”
As for goals and expectations, Sullivan’s top goal for the team is to compete.
“We just need to compete,” he said. “We have a lot of girls on the team that are really competitive. The more they learn about themselves on the golf course, the better they’re going to be, not only later on in the season, but in life.”
“We did a really good job of controlling what we could control last year,” added Sullivan. “And I think we can really do that again.”
For Sullivan, that begins with Butcher, Mann and Watson.
“We need our three returning players to show consistency,” he said. “We’re going to have three new varsity players for the most part without Aubrey. They need to be consistently at their best as much as they can be.”
