Calvert Hall golf coach Drew Forrester is more interested in the bad rounds than the good ones.
He wants to see how players respond to a little adversity. Does a bad shot or round send them into a tailspin? Or are they able to lift themselves back up?
“The sport is volatile enough without you losing your temper and throwing clubs and getting angry,” said Forrester, who won’t stand for his players throwing clubs.
They get one strike. And, if they ever throw a club again, they are off the team.
“You don’t throw a club at Calvert Hall,” he said firmly.
The Cardinals overcame their adversity this season. After dropping the final match of the regular season to McDonogh — a bitterly disappointing result considering one of their top goals was to finish the season unbeaten — they quickly rebounded and won their second MIAA A Conference championship in three seasons.
Calvert Hall (16-1) beat Loyola Blakefield in the semifinals at Country Club of Maryland and then Archbishop Spalding in the championship match at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills.
“I’ll tell you what, the one thing we were, we were tough. We never quit,” Forrester said. “There were two or three matches where we were down-and-out heading to the 10th tee with three holes to go. And we just never quit. We pulled a couple of rabbits out of the hat against Mount Saint Joe at Rolling Road and against Loyola at Hunt Valley.
“And I think those wins really made our kids believe that if you don’t quit, if you just keep trying to hit good shots, then good things can happen. So, I’d say one intangible that we had, and we had kids that really know how to play golf, but the one intangible we had is those kids never quit.”
In other words, the Cardinals managed to shake off their bad shots and their bad rounds. Their even-keeled nature — the defining quality Forrester looks for when recruiting players — served them very well.
“I would just say we had an all-around group of guys that cared,” said junior Ryan Hoffner, a three-time All-MIAA player for Calvert Hall. “I mean, everyone on our team put in their best effort every day in practice. We had guys that came in and grew a lot throughout the year.”
Hoffner mentioned captains Clayton Wright and Brooks Manning as key figures on the team. Manning earned MIAA A Conference Athlete of the Year honors in golf.
“Over the three years I played with [Wright], he grew more than any guy I’ve ever seen,” Hoffner said. “Getting that kind of leadership, it was awesome to be around him as a teammate. Our other captain, Brooks, he’s one of my best friends and had a great year for us.”
Past experience also served Calvert Hall well. In 2024, the Cardinals were the heavy favorites to win a second straight MIAA championship, but they lost to St. Paul’s in the A Conference final.
Forrester said the team didn’t handle being the team in the crosshairs, the team that every other team wanted to beat, very well.
“It’s very difficult to play in sports as the hunted,” the coach said. “It’s way easier to be doing the hunting.”
But this seaeson was a different story from start to finish.
“We enjoyed it,” Forrester said. “We knew everybody wanted to beat us. We kind of relished it.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Drew Forrester
Issue 293: June / July 2025
Originally published June 18, 2025
