When Mountain Valley had its fall sports information meeting a month ago, Adam Curato didn’t know if he was going to have a team.

The Falcons’ golf coach was in limbo for a second straight season.

He knew one player — junior Riley Bell — would show up. He had been a member of the team in 2013. Any hope of resurrecting the program would require four others to walk through the door.

That’s what exactly what they got: Four freshmen came to the meeting without ever having picked up a golf club.

“They were all new faces, they never played golf before,” Curato said. “They just saw it as an option and said, ‘Let’s try it’ — they really like the sport now. Going into the banquet, I had no idea we were going to have enough kids.”

The four freshmen who showed up at the meeting were Aaron Cameron, Montana Averill, Jacob Bellegarde and Keagen Hodson. A fifth freshman, Cameron Godbois, has since joined the team.

“No, I have never seen them in my life,” Bell, the de facto team veteran, said. “It was a big surprise. I had never seen any of them in my life. It’s good.

“Everyone has their starting point. It’s hard. It took me a long time to get as far as I have. I mean, you have to start sometime, so why not now, right?”

Bell said he took up the game four years ago when his a friend asked if he was interested to going to the golf course with him. He quickly picked up the golf bug and got a membership his second year playing the game.

Curato said parents inquired about whether the program still existed. He credits athletic director Al Cayer for suspending the program and not dropping the program all together.

“I was disappointed, I had hopes we would have five, but we only ended up with two, which put a stop to the program briefly,” Curato said. “I spoke to Mr. Cayer and he said we probably can do the co-op last year, but he remained committed to the golf program. He hoped as I did we would get some freshmen to come in and some more interest throughout the year.”

Mountain Valley decided not to co-op with another school because the players would be playing as individuals in matches.

“I wouldn’t really have been joining a team, I would be playing for Mountain Valley as an independent and traveling the area,” Bell said. “I live a half an hour away from school so I didn’t see much of a point for kind of me playing for myself. I had a lot to work on my golf game and I decided to wait and see what happened this year.”

Bell and Curato stayed in touch last year when they saw each other at school. Curato is also the girls’ track coach. Bell spent his newfound free time working on his game, trying to get more consistent, hitting the ball well and hitting the ball straight.

“I was still a member of (Oakdale), so I played some rounds, which was good,” Bell said. “I learned a lot of good stuff this summer, I didn’t play too much as we got into the fall as hunting season came along.”

Bell would filled Curato in on what he was doing to work on his game.

He felt more confident heading into the season the first match of which was Wednesday against St. Dom’s in Auburn.

Bell lost to Justin Keaney 4-and-3 as the team fell 7-0 in their opening match.

“I don’t how it’s really going to go,” Bell said. “We are working on some of the basics. As far as me, I could play 18 every practice and I would be fine. They aren’t quite ready for that. Hopefully by the end of the season we will be playing a round.”

Being the lone upperclassman on the roster, Curato has looked at Bell to be a leader on the team

“Riley is a great leader, the kids really look up to him,” Curato said. “He understands the game of golf from an etiquette standpoint, from a swing standpoint, he really has stepped into that role quite nicely. Whenever he sees a kid do something wrong with (their) swing he would say try something else, try this, try that. The kids have really responded well to that.”

Oakdale Country Club pro Aaron Williamson has provided the team what they need to learn the game on the fly.

“Oakdale has been very generous to us over the years and they provide quite a bit of learning tools,” Curato said. “Adam Williamson, the pro, he’s a great supporter of our program. He lets us use the range, the balls, anything I ask for him, it’s absolutely. Even the members have been helpful. A lot of members come down and give tips to these kids. They even help me out. So it hasn’t been me coaching these kids, the whole clubhouse.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com