PETERSBURG – Dylan Szegedi was a national champion diver in college.
He came to Summerfield in 2023 as a teacher and football coach.
Szegedi added a new chapter to his resume last spring, taking over the school’s boys golf team.
“Golf is actually something I’ve been doing my entire life,” he said. “My dad taught me the game when I was young. It was a good way to get away from diving and other sports.
“It’s something I do as recreation now. As I’ve gotten older, I have really fallen in love with the game.”
Still, Szegedi was a little hesitant to coach the game.
“When Kelly (Kalb, Summerfield’s athletic director) approached me taking the golf team I told her that I had never coached golf,” he recalled. “Spring is my time to relax and just play golf with my friends, but she convinced me to give it a try. … I couldn’t be happier that I said yes.”
Szegedi led the Bulldogs to perhaps the greatest season in school history, winning the Tri-County Conference championship and taking second it their regional to each a trip to the state finals.
Szegedi has been named Monroe County Region Boys Golf Coach of the Year by The Monroe News Sports staff.
“It was pretty awesome,” he said. “I don’t know if it was unexpected, but Summerfield hasn’t made it to state as a team in something like 20 years.”
The Bulldogs were dominant in the league, winning the TCC championship meet by 18 strokes.
“We played pretty well,” Szegedi said of the league meet. “The weather that day was really brutal, but the boys handled it very well. Most days we get to the courses and I want to play. That day I said, ‘You guys have fun.’ I had an umbrella, winter coat, hat and gloves.”
Summerfield shot 365 at the Hills of Lenawee Golf Club as James Feudi earned medalist honors with 83 and Eli VanHuysen, Owen Thomas and Mitchell Gomulinski all checked in at 94.
Szegedi didn’t know what to expect in the Division 4 regional at Arbor Hills Golf Club in Jackson.
“I knew James had a chance to complete individually, but as a team I never though we had more than an outside chance of being in the top three,” he said.
The first few holes were a nightmare for the Bulldogs.
“We got off to a really bad start for the first three holes,” Szegedi said. “We could not have played any worse. But I looked and we were still fifth or sixth.
“I could tell by the 12th or 13th hole that it could get real interesting.”
Feudi heated up and wound up winning medalist honors with a round of 82. He got support from Thomas (85), VanHuysen (87) and Logan Schwichtenberg (90) as Summerfield charged to finish just two strokes behind champion Plymouth Christian with 344.
Summerfield was 16th as a team in the state finals with Feudi, a sophomore, leading the way with a two-day total of 170.
“James has all the talent in the world,” Szegedi said. “He can be as good a golfer as he wants to be.”
Szegedi doesn’t take a lot of credit for honing the swing of Feudi or the other Summerfield golfers.
“We just show them some technical things about how to swing a golf club,” he said. “It also helps to have a lot of talent. We had 15 or 16 golfers with varying skills.”
With that many players, Szegedi leans heavily on assistant coach Brett VanHuysen.
Summerfield had almost as many players on its golf team as it did on its Tri-County Conference championship football roster.
“Some days, it was a lot moving around the range trying to get things set up,” he said. “I never thought in a million years that we would have more than a handful of players.”
Most of the golfers played other sports and some participated in multiple sports in the spring.
“A lot of them were dual-sport athletes,” Szegedi said. “We had some baseball players and some track and field athletes. Some kids are serious about it and some just want to play golf. I have no issue with that.
“I am happy to see kids have an interest in golf. It’s a great game, something you can do forever.”
Szegedi plans to play for golf as long as he is able, but not year-round. The clubs will be packed away in a few months.
“In the fall, I am all football,” he said. “I put the clubs down whenever we start in August and don’t play anymore.”
