Eagles Hold First Annual Golf Outing at Scotch Valley Country Club

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College Athletics held its first annual JClub Golf Outing Monday, May 20 at Scotch Valley Country Club in Hollidaysburg, Pa. The event featured nearly 100 golfers with one common goal, helping the athletics department move forward into the future. 24 different foursomes played four-man scramble and competed for prizes on the course.

“All the reaction we’ve had from everybody has been positive,” said athletic director Greg Curley.  “They thought the course was great, the day was great, and it was a great chance to get a lot of people together and celebrate Juniata Athletics.”

Among the foursomes was new Juniata College President James Troha.  A former student-athlete himself, Troha spent his first official day in office supporting the athletic department’s efforts on the course with Curley.

“It means a lot,” said Curley of Troha’s presence.  “I just think that it was great that he could be there on his first day, in our first event.  It’s a very visual representation of his support for what we are trying to do and something we should be excited about.”

Juniata men’s basketball alums Nick Hager (’07) and Kyle Opitz (’08) won the event with their fathers Bill Hager and Gordy Opitz.  They tied Steve Huston, Ed Strickler, Steve Turner and head cross country and track and field coach Jon Cutright with a score of 58 on the day, but squeaked ahead in the tiebreaker.  Another father-son pair rounded out the top three.  Recent men’s basketball alum Alex Raymond (’13) and his father Dr. Gary Raymond recorded a score of 59 with Brent and Russ Krug to place third.

Contests were also scattered across the course for big prizes.  Boat-N-RV put a Caravelle boat with tow package and covers on hole two for the first person who hit a hole-in-one there. Pepsi sponsored a couple prizes of its own for getting a hole-in-one including a five day, four night cruise for two on hole 17 and two season tickets to any NFL team on five. 

No one earned a hole-in-one, but assistant men’s basketball coach Keith Black was closest to the pin on 17 and Doug Rothrock was the closest on two.  There were five other individual winners on the day.  Steve Ake and Lynn Phillips had the longest drives for the men and women, respectively.  And Bill Hager had the straightest drive.  On the green, Brent Krug dropped the longest putt and Steve Turner took home a new putter after winning the putting contest.

Every golfer in attendance received a participation pack that included special Juniata Athletics golf balls, tees, umbrellas and drawstring bags.  They also had an opportunity to participate in raffles and the silent auction.  The raffles were for Juniata Athletics golf bags, luggage, coolers and golf clubs and a sports package that included tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers exhibition game against the New York Giants in August and seats at a Pittsburgh Pirates regular season game this year.

But the collectibles were in the silent auction.  There was a 16x20 photo of the 1980 Miracle on Ice that was autographed by the entire team, an authentic autographed Larry Bird jersey and a baseball bat autographed by Philadelphia Phillie Mike Schmidt.

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