The advent of the fall sports season begins a new chapter for Pleasant Valley and Lehighton athletic teams as they have departed from the now-defunct Mountain Valley Conference and both head to new leagues. Pleasant Valley moves into the 18-team Eastern Pennsylvania Conference while Lehighton joins the Schuylkill League.

Both schools' entire athletic arsenals face adversity due to the change in league affiliation as coaches and players begin acclimating to new opponents.But no sport will feel a more immediate impact of the league change than golf. The Pleasant Valley and Lehighton golf teams will not only be facing new opponents, but will have to do it on completely unfamiliar golf courses. By contrast, the volleyball, football and soccer teams might be playing new opponents, but the courts and fields will be the same measurements. With golf, it is much different.As a golfer playing on new terrain, the student-athlete becomes an explorer of sorts, figuring out new hills/valleys, discovering sand traps, water hazards and plenty of different lies on a course. Brand new greens present the challenge of attempting to figure out the 'breaks,' causing for a much larger challenge that Pleasant Valley coach Steve Krechel and Lehighton coach Matt Fisher plan on tackling one course at a time."The kids have never seen these courses before," Fisher related. "A lot of them won't have experience playing on these new courses."When asked to explain the challenges more in-depth, Fisher said, "It's almost like driving a different car - it handles differently, if the new car is a compact car, and you're used to driving a sports car, the driver needs to adapt."As a golfer, they'll need to see how the greens handle, the fairways, roughs, where the out-of-bounds areas are, or where 'trouble' is located, like sand traps or water hazards. The kids will have to think about it and for a while, we might be at a disadvantage, but we'll have to adjust."The Indians' number one golfer, senior Jordan Knappenberger, added, "As a player, you don't know the layout of the holes, so it's almost like you're a freshman again, playing your first match, because you've never been there before."Both coaches said they will be taking advantage of technology and its benefits in playing the new courses."We do a bit of research on the internet beforehand," Krechel admits, referring to some courses' websites depicting layouts, and possibly even 'virtual holes' with camera shots of the fairways. "I've also played the new courses, so on the bus rides, we talk about it on the way to the matches."Also, there are the GPS range-finders available to them, making it easier for some. But again, not everyone has these."The exodus to new leagues also brings different formats for team golf matches as well. In the MVC, both Lehighton and Pleasant Valley counted the top six golfers in a match towards their overall team score. However, in the Bears' new league, teams use their top five. For the Indians, in the Schuylkill, teams only use four players to amass their team total.Fisher mentioned, "with the new format, our strategy is a lot different. In the past, I needed to make sure that eight to ten players on my team improved their scores to go towards a match's six players that are counted. However, with the Schuylkill League's format, even though we want every player's scores to get lower, I can concentrate more on our top few players, and get them ready for the match to be competitive."With both teams now needing fewer players to contend in each match, it decreases the necessity to be as deep as they used to be.Krechel related, "it makes it a little easier only needing five players to count and it helps teams with not having to rely on depth that much in order to win matches."Another change due to the new league affiliation has to do with the schools' enrollment size. Lehighton was the smallest district in the Mountain Valley Conference and needed to consistently face off against larger schools in the league. However, with the Indians' move they become one of the largest in their new conference"Of course, it's nice to be able to play against schools that are more our size," Fisher mentioned. "In the past, we found that we just weren't at the same caliber as those bigger schools."Meanwhile, the Bears still have the challenge of playing larger schools something Krechel knows all too well."In the past, when we've played against teams from the LVC, we haven't faired all that well," he said. "So, the level of our competition is going to go up, and yes, course knowledge will be a factor."As all golfers are well aware of, knowing the layout of a course they play can only help. But the ball still needs to end up in the cup, and "course geography" can only benefit someone so much.