The pieces are all in place and the motivation is established for Aberdeen Roncalli as the Cavaliers head into the girls’ golf season.

Roncalli returns its entire squad off a third-place team at last year’s Class A state tournament, including runner-up finisher Claire Crawford.

The Cavaliers feature four seniors: Crawford, Grace Seyer, Morgan Helms, and Ava Danielson, along with freshman Mackenzie Wegehaupt.

“Very fortunate and lucky for me as the girls’ coach, I haven’t had to ruffle feathers too much. I’ve had the same four play the top five for four years,” said Roncalli coach Jon Murdy. “The fifth golfer, until Mackenzie got a little older, that’s the only time, but I’ve had Mackenzie there for three years now. My job as coach for the girls is glorified bus driver and at the same point, get them to realize their potential.”

That potential was on display a bit quicker than expected as the Cavaliers became an elite Class A program before this group reached their senior campaign.

“When I first took over the girls, I knew that there was opportunity for growth, opportunity for improvement,” Murdy said. “I don’t think any of us realized how quick it would happen.”

The Cavaliers are not only experienced and talented, they are driven to succeed and find ways to improve, according to Murdy.

“All four of my seniors and Mackenzie, all of them are very competitive. It’s the I love winning, but I hate losing more type deal,” Murdy said. “Even you look at Claire coming in second, she is ecstatic over the moon, but you can kind of see that there is just a little bit a part of her that’s like I can be better. I can be better. I can do it better. It’s not necessarily her telling herself that I need to win it, it’s just that one percent better every day. She wants to keep improving. She’s asking the right questions.”

Murdy said that Crawford, who owned a four-stroke lead heading into the second round at the state tournament last year, has a second chance at winning the individual state title and will be motivated this spring.

“I think she learned quite quickly on day two last year, she was afraid of making mistakes and I was making her make mistakes. The back nine she played a lot more free and let the golf course come to her instead of trying to force stuff,” Murdy said. “Her mindset, her attitude, everything on the back nine was just so much better. I think having that happen to her last year and not having that happen to her on her senior year, kind of gives her that little bit more fuel, a little bit more motivation to get back there and feel that again.”

Roncalli will feature a balanced attack with any golfer capable of leading the squad on any given day.

Murdy knows that other teams will be out to get the Cavaliers, but that’s a position he and the players welcome.

“I’ve been very, very fortunate as the girls’ golf coach the last couple years. The target’s on our back. We’ve put it on our back, but we will gladly wear it on our back,” Murdy said. “They’ve put in the time, they’ve put in the effort. They want to do well, but also in that sense if they don’t do well as an individual, they’re still pushing for everyone else to do well. It’s very selfless. It’s all for the team.”

The Cavaliers, who open their season on Monday at a tournament in Sisseton, have three key tourneys in mind each season: the Northeast Conference Tournament, the Region 1A Tournament, and the State A Tournament.

“The goal is three plaques. We want to win conference, we want to win regions, we still want to perform really well at state,” Murdy said. “We know that it’s a tall task to get all five girls to play well for two days, but at the same time, if we do everything that we’re supposed to do throughout the season and get to the end of the season, yeah, we should be right there again for a state title.”

This season will be an extra special one for Murdy, who announced this will be his last campaign as the coach of the squad.

Murdy does not want the focus to be on him, though.

“Even though it’s the last season of coaching,” he said, “it’s still what’s best for the girls, what’s best for the program, what’s best for the team.”

Murdy, who has coached the girls for the past four seasons, wants to make sure the program is in a good place moving forward.

“The one thing that you never want to see as a coach is all of a sudden the program go backwards,” Murdy said. “I want to be able to sit there and be proud of the program that I helped built a little bit, helped grow a little bit.”

First up though is this matter of chasing after the state title this spring and Murdy doing his best to help the Cavaliers play up to their full potential.

“They know what they need to improve. They know what I want them to do to improve. They just ask the right questions,” Murdy said. “We’re not trying to make a difficult sport even more difficult. We’re trying to make a difficult sport easier, and some days it works and some days it doesn’t.”