Cooper Dossey, incoming college sophomore, says his golf experience at Vandegrift helped prepare him to play on the Baylor University team.
Wins golf titles in first year
By CARSON FIELD
Four Points News
The Vandegrift boys’ golf program currently has four former players playing at the collegiate level, and one of them helped lead his team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association match-play quarterfinals.
“The best highlights from my freshman year were reaching the No. 1 ranking as a team, making match-play at the NCAA’s, and winning my first collegiate tournament,” said Cooper Dossey, Baylor University incoming sophomore on the golf team.
Dossey was a four-year varsity golfer for Vandegrift in his high school career and was a part of the team’s three state championships in a row. He owns six program records, including low individual total and career wins.
While he started golfing years before high school, Dossey said his time at Vandegrift helped him rise to the level he is at today.
“My four years at Vandegrift helped me in a lot of ways, but the two most important were playing for Coach Wernecke and competing with each guy on the team,” Dossey said. “Coach Wernecke is one of the best high school coaches in the country, and he believed in me since day one. My teammates pushed me everyday, and that helped me be more competitive.”
Matt Wernecke has been the head golf coach since the school was founded, and he said that coaching Dossey was a great experience.
“It’s obviously great to have been able to coach Cooper,” Wernecke said. “He’s one of those players that you get to enjoy having in the program. He was going to be really good no matter what, but hopefully he picked up a few good things while he was at Vandegrift.”
Because of his memorable freshman season, Dossey was awarded with many accolades, including Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and being named to the GCAA All-Freshman Team.
“It was a huge honor to win Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and I’m extremely thankful for the recognition, but I would trade the award for a National Championship with my teammates any day,” Dossey said. “That’s what is most important to me while I’m at Baylor, a team championship.”
Dossey helped lead Baylor to the quarterfinals of the NCAA match-play, but the Bears lost in the first round of the quarterfinals to the University of Oklahoma.
Although his first season was a success, Dossey said he needs to improve in the offseason to have a strong sophomore season.
“In order to improve next year, I just need to keep working harder everyday and continue to be a smarter golfer,” Dossey said.
Baylor’s kicks off the 2017-2018 season Sept. 10-11 at the Gopher Invitational in Minnesota.