As Free State High golfer Stephan Skepnek was walking toward the clubhouse after finishing a round of golf at Alvamar Country Club Tuesday evening, coach Jack Schreiner yelled a question at him.

“Do you want to practice or play (today)?” the coach asked.

Free state golfer Aaron Webber chips to the green. Webber shot an 83 and tied for second place in the Firebirds' dual with Blue Valley Northwest on Tuesday at Alvamar Country Club.

“Practice,” Skepnek answered without hesitation.

Skepnek finished with an admirable score of 88 strokes, which isn’t bad at all considering the difficulty of the course, Schreiner said. But his willingness to practice instead of play might be the reason the Firebirds were able to shave 14 team strokes off their score since the last time FSHS played this course.

Free State shot 360 on April 3 against Rockhurst High and totaled 346 against Blue Valley Northwest (333 stokes) Tuesday.

“That we cut down on those strokes tells me something,” Schreiner said. “We still need to work on a lot of things, but we’ve done a lot since we played Rockhurst here three weeks ago.”

The Huskies’ Emory Dease placed first with a score of 80 strokes. BVNW’s Phil Zacharias and Free State’s Aaron Webber tied for second as each finished with a score of 83.

The Firebirds’ Jason O’Brien finished with 86 for sixth place and was followed by Skepnek (88), Phil Zahn (89), Tyler Yeakel (89), Andy Frye (94) and Mike Gisel (99).

“I’m pleased with how we did,” Schreiner said. “We had four kids in the 80s and this was a tough course. It was a beautiful day for golf and the kids had a good time, but this isn’t the easiest course.”

Schreiner said he expected his team to improve in the three weeks it had before regionals at Eagle Bend.

Free State High's Stephan Skepnek tees off at Alvamar Country Club. Skepnek carded an 88 on Tuesday.

Because that course is not as difficult as the Alvamar Country Club course some Blue Valley Northwest golfers said the 12th hole was particularly hard to play and because Free State has plenty of time to practice, Schreiner said he expected better marks from his team.

“If we keep improving we might be able to get a couple kids in the high 70s and a few more in the low 80s,” he said. “If we do that, we’ll have a chance at regionals.”

But if the Firebirds start to get worse and the shots begin to pile up instead of lessening, Schreiner has a solution for that, too.

“If our scores at Eagle Bend are the same as they were here,” he told some of his players, “then we’ll throw our clubs in the water.”