Senior Trio Leads Cloquet Golf to Third-Straight State Tournament

Sam Baker, Trevor Steinert and Brayden Tyman have all been playing together on the Cloquet golf team since the 8th grade and have now led the Lumberjacks to three straight state tournaments.

CLOQUET, Minn. – Sam Baker, Trevor Steinert and Brayden Tyman have all been playing together on the Cloquet golf team since the 8th grade. Now, in their last year playing together, they’ve led the Lumberjacks back to their third straight class AA state tournament.

“We’ve been ride or die since the start,” senior Sam Baker said.

“I’m a teacher at the middle school so I’ve been around these kids for that and then growing up with them here at the golf course and it’s nice to have that core group that you can depend on,” head coach Aaron Young said.

The Lumberjacks were poised for a big season last year before COVID canceled the season, but they’ve picked things up right where they left off.

“To show that the seniors were all able to come back and be as strong as we were in recent years and then also to have the younger core come in and show the depth, it means a lot for us three to get this one last shot,” senior Trevor Steinert said.

While the senior trio has led the Lumberjacks this season, they’ve also utilized their depth.

We’ll have a couple scores in the 70s and then our sixth guy or fifth guy will hop in their too so it’s not only our top four and we’re trending in the right direction,” Baker said.

“We’ve got a great mindset, we’ve got a great team, we’ve got six guys. Unlike other teams where their sixth guy is shooting high scores but we’ve got a sixth guy who can go out there and shoot a decent score and help out the boys,” senior Brayden Tyman added.

That was big during the section tournament. After a rough start, Cloquet battled back the second day to take the 7AA crown.

“If one kid’s down one day, we can very easily have somebody pop in their and take their place within our six. That was a big advantage so when we were down a couple shots, they were able to come back and win fairly convincingly that second day,” Young said.

“It proved on the second day what we can really do as a team and we can deal with adversity,” Steinert added.

Before this senior trio gets the next generation of Lumberjack golfers ready to take over, they’re hoping to use their experience to leave one last mark on the program.

“The key is to make it to state, now we’re going to go down there and have some fun and see if we can make a little noise,” Young said.

“Us three, we were looking to go to a state championship and we’re ready to do it this year,” Tyman added.

The class AA state tournament is set for June 15 and 16 at the Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan, Minnesota.