After years at the bottom of the standings, the Ballard Beaver girl golfers are now the third best team in the league with two players going to state while also being named to the All-KingCo team.

The icing on the cake came when other KingCo golf coaches voted Ballard's Stan Geddes as Coach of the Year.

"It's great. It shows me other coaches are aware of the progress we have made. We used to be a joke, they did not want to play us, it was no fun," said Geddes. Ballard was 6 and 4 this season, but fell on match short of Geddes goal of 7 and 3.

The team finished in third place at the KingCo 4A Medalist Tournament last week. Redmond was first with 422 strokes, Eastlake second at 451 and Ballard had 407.

Four Ballard golfers qualified for the KingCo 4A Medalist Tournament. They include Emily Shiels, Kristen Yeasting, Sammy Wong and Ellie Shane.

Shiels and Yeasting both played well enough to qualify for the state tournament.

Shiels set the pace on the first day of the KingCo Tournament with a fourth place showing and a score of 85. Yeasting was 13th with a score of 93.

On the second day, Yeasting made a dramatic improvement. Her score of 83 moved her into seventh place overall. Shiels was tenth with 93.

"She came out of no where," Geddes said, referring to Yeasting's golf game on the second day.

Yeasting and Shiels taking seventh and tenth is remarkable. Geddes said the number eight golfer for Redmond is better than any of his players, yet the Beaver girls outplayed some of them.

"Those girls played great," said Geddes. "We've had four girls that have worked hard for three years. All four are good athletes. They worked hard at golf camps."

Many Eastside golf powers have girls whose families belong to prestigious golf clubs like Bear Creek and Sahalee. They benefit from working with golf professionals at those courses.

Ballard golfers train with Geddes and Ron Hansen, the golf professional at Interbay Golf Course, a public facility.

Wong is the only senior among the top four Ballard golfers. Geddes said he was not expecting his team to compete this well in KingCo until next year when Shiels. Yeasting and Shane are seniors.

Geddes says eastside schools can no longer overlook Ballard.

"I was proud of them, they are coming along," said Geddes.

The state championships begin on May 29 and continue on May 30 at the Avalon Golf Course.

Dean Wong may be reached at deanw@robinsonnews.com