All of our area teams have been fighting the nasty spring weather, but maybe none more so than the Pella Christian boys golf team.

Until Tuesday, the Eagles hadn’t played a meet yet this season, which is an especially challenging situation for a team with very little experience.

First year Coach Joel Rietema has tried to keep it in perspective with his guys as they work on continual improvement this season.

“Golf is a tough game to play. I’ve played a lot of sports, and golf is by far the toughest that I’ve played, so you have to give yourself some grace. I’ve been talking to them about getting better every day. That’s our expectation, to have the confidence to go out and play their game and know that they’re improving throughout the season.”

At Tuesday’s season opening meet at Beaver Creek, hosted by Dallas Center-Grimes, the Eagles didn’t take a full team and thus didn’t register a team score.

Rietema says that several members of the squad are still working on lowering their nine hole scores before he’ll feel comfortable throwing them into a meet situation.

Jaren DeBruin shot 61 to lead the Eagles, with Jooyong Park carding a 68 and Jared DeVries shooting 70.

The next chance for competition is Monday at Gateway Park in Monroe for the PCM Invitational.