Jeff Cole is entering his second season as head coach of the South Loup golf team. Prior to that, Cole was an assistant to Coach Jarod Rush for three seasons. Joining Coach Cole on the course again this year will be Assistant Coach Garrett Hrupek.

The Bobcats have several returning golfers bringing experience to the team this season, including Haydn Stretesky, Crew Witthuhn, Callan Witthun, and Asher Evans. They will be joined by new members of the 2026 team - Dawson Downing, Kyson Stretesky, Landon Paulsen, and Piper Strasburg.

Seniors Stretesky and Crew Witthuhn, and sophomore Callan Witthuhn are all returning letter winners for the Bobcats.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how this group improves throughout the season,” said Coach Cole. “We lost three of our top five from last year’s team, so it will be interesting to see who steps up and improves their game to round out our top five.”

Coach Cole admitted that the loss of some of last season’s key leaders will be tough to overcome this season, but he has confidence in his squad. “We’ll have a fairly inexperienced tournament team with the loss of our three seniors off last year’s team, but we have some players that I’m confident will step up and make us a competitive team.”

The first meet of the 2026 season for the Bobcats will be on Thursday, April 2, at Amherst. Tee time is set for 10 a.m.