The Storm golf team is teeing up to start a new season. Next week, the team will visit Las Vegas on a trip and play several rounds in the warm weather.

Senior captain John Richter of Marshalltown is excited for the trip and said this will be an opportunity for the team to grow.

“We’re going to do a lot more practicing this year than last year,” Richter said. “We need to get a lot of practice in and some good rounds to be able to build some momentum going into the season.”

The team will take eight of their 13 members on the trip, which consists of many of the players from a year ago. Another member of the team going to Las Vegas is junior Matt Spaulding from Fonda. Spaulding is excited at the chance to work on his game outdoors.

“I expect to put in the effort to become a better player,” Spaulding said. “I get the chance to work on the areas of the game that really need some attention.”

The coach of the golf team is Indianola Country Club Pro Jason Marvelli. Marvelli knows that the guys on the team have not had much time to practice golf and is trying to keep this in perspective.

“We haven’t touched a golf club since September outside,” Marvelli said. “The kids have been working in the golf dome a little bit. Our expectations are to work hard for those six days. Golf is a sport where you have to work outside, it’s very seasonal so we have a lot of rust to knock off.”

Going on the trip to Las Vegas along with Spaulding and Richter will be senior Jon Sukut from Ankeny, juniors James Montgomery from Knoxville, Michael Peterson from Emmetsburg and Nick Tanner from Sheldon, sophomore Grant Northway from Altoona and freshman Adam Walker from Adel.

Once the team returns from Las Vegas, they will have a little less than a week before their first meet at Central, pending the amount of snow that is still on the ground. The first and only home meet for the Storm will come on March 30, at the Indianola Country Club.

While the team did not end the season like they wanted last year, many of the same players will be returning and hope to have a good season. Marvelli has set his goals high for the team.

“We have a lot of kids back,” Marvelli said. “We’re not near the level I want to be at but no coach will ever say they are. In the near future I would like to see us compete for conference championships.”

When the season is near its completion, the team will move on to the conference championships.

This year, Wartburg will be the host school. The first two rounds of the tournament will take place at Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City on April 23 and 24. The second two rounds will come the following weekend at Centennial Oaks Golf Course in Waverly on April 30.

When the conference season starts up, Richter knows success can be very simple.

“We have potential, we’ll see,” Richter said. “It’s all about team chemistry.”

The golf team has also said you can follow them on Twitter during the season and on the trip to Las Vegas to track their progress.