SELINSGROVE -- If anyone had questions as to how things might go in the Heartland Athletic Conference in its inaugural season, they need to review the opening three matches for Division I.

Danville eked out a 1-stroke win over Shikellamy on Aug. 18. Then, under first-year and first-time high school coach Ken Gurysh, Selinsgrove won on Aug. 20. On Monday, Aug. 25, Shikellamy won.

That's three different winners in three events.

For Matt Olson, the Shikellamy Braves season couldn't have started off any better than finishing one stroke behind Danville in the opening match.

"I think we have a really strong team this year with two leaders, Cody Conklin and Jake Snyder," Olson said. "They are going to do well every week. We have four guys who, if they play consistently, will have a good year. If we can get four out of the six golfers to have a little lower score and be a little bit more consistent, we can contend. Realistically, if you would have told me that we would finish one stroke behind Danville in the first match of the year, I would never have thought that would have happened. If we continue to improve, the maybe we can finish one stroke ahead of them."

One player Olson pointed to was freshman A.J. Sangil, saying "he's ahead of where most freshmen are at this time of the year."

Entering his 18th season as the golf coach at Danville, Ron Kanaskie is looking forward to the new alignment.

"I think it's a long time coming and it's a great benefit for our athletics and academics," he said.

"I'm very supportive of the new division. We have three pretty balanced divisions and I think Division I is going to be a strong division with a lot of good teams."

Senior Nick Butto is one of four lettermen who are retuning for the Ironmen. He made it to the second day of qualifying for districts last year.

Other key returnees are Brenden Gruss, Nick Loeb and Nate Coleman.

"I have a real fun time coaching these kids," Kanaskie added. "There's a good chemistry there and they are all close friends and they are very competitive with one another."

In Selinsgrove, new Seals coach Ken Gurysh won in just his second match as a varsity coach when Selinsgrove won last week at White Deer Golf Club in Williamsport.

"I play five days a week now that I am retired from Butter-Krust, but I have two sons, one is the golf coach at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, and my younger son is the head golf pro at Lake Forest, Ill., so we do have golf in the family," Gurysh said. "I'm not a teaching pro like the old coach they had, but I do know enough about the game that I can help the kids out. I found that I have a good crop of boys that really want to play.

"They strike the ball well, and in time, I think we're going to have a team that will be very competitive and we'll be a threat to the league."