- September 5, 2026
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Coach Dave Frantz took his Lakewood Ranch High boys golf team to Mission Resort and Club of Howey-in-the-Hills in early August.
There wasn’t a trophy up for grabs. There wasn’t an opponent to defeat. None of the birdies or bogeys counted toward their season.
It was simply a practice round, but one on the very course where, last year, the Mustangs placed 12th at the FHSAA Class 3A state championship.
They were the runner-up in both 2024 and 2023.
“Those rounds have definitely been sitting in our minds for a good bit since November,” said senior Donovan Plakyda. “We’ll get our redemption.”
A new season has arrived for Lakewood Ranch High. The players hope the coming months will eventually bring them back to Mission Resort and Club — and that shot at redemption.
Frantz, who has coached the Mustangs since 2019, is high on this year’s group. He’s seen plenty of groups come and go, having previously been the coach from 1998-2014.
Frantz said this roster is unusually deep.
“All those guys are a one handicap or lower… any one of them can break par at any given time,” Frantz said. “I haven’t had seven players who can do that in, I almost want to say, ever.”
At last year’s state championship, Brock Blackwell carded Lakewood Ranch’s best individual score with a 13-over-par 157, tying for 41st place. He was followed by Alexander Makarewicz (19-over-par 163) in T-60th place and by Owen Gellatly (20-over-par 164) in T-67th place.
The Mustangs lost Blackwell and Jack Wessinger to graduation after 2025. They had been the team’s second-best and fourth-best golfers, respectively, Frantz said.
It was Plakyda who had the lowest average score of any golfer last season, but in Howey-in-the-Hills last November, posted the second-highest score of the team’s five scored golfers. He shot a 23-over-par 167.
Still, he’s the reigning District 3A-11 champion, and is Lakewood Ranch’s top golfer this fall as the team hunts for its first state title since 2013.
“I’ve built up (myself) and learned from my peers. I know what it takes now,” Plakyda said. “It’s good to spread that among the other guys on the team, and they seem to be getting the same energy and wanting to win states.”
Gellatly also returns for his senior season. Alongside him and Plakyda in the lineup are Makarewicz and Will Thomas — both juniors who were on varsity in 2025.
Sophomore Trey Susa, sophomore Tiger Zhang and freshman Declan Young are the batch of newcomers who complete the Mustangs’ top seven. Susa moved to the area from Sewickley, Pennsylvania, while Zhang moved in from West Suffield, Connecticut.
Young is a home-grown talent. He’s been winning events in his age group for eight years, Frantz said. In the U.S. Kids Golf World Teen Championship from July 23-25, Young tied for 20th place out of 150 golfers in the boys’ 13-year-old division with a 1-over-par 145.
None of those three have competed for an FHSAA state championship before, or even for FHSAA titles at the regional and district levels. They’ll have to cross those three events off their respective bucket lists if Lakewood Ranch is to reach the redemption it’s seeking.
“The players are becoming tighter and knowing what they want to do,” Gellatly said. “Seems like this year, it’s different.”
Frantz has no doubts about the collective “want” of this year’s group. He knows how hard his returners worked to improve in the offseason, and has seen the newcomers share in that work ethic since they showed up for tryouts.
He awards off days so that his golfers can focus on academics, but those days are rarely taken as such. He will often find them with a driver in their hands in lieu of a pencil between their fingers.
“I’ll see them all practicing and I’m like, ‘What are you guys doing?’” Frantz said. “It’s just who they are. … It is a great, great group. I love them.”
The Mustangs remain 13 years removed from their most recent state title. From 2011-13, Lakewood Ranch won three straight state championships, becoming a boys golf dynasty in the 2010s in Florida’s largest high school classification. Even though the team finished 12th in 2025, it still secured a fourth consecutive Region 3A-3 championship.
When the Mustangs finished as state runner-up for the first time in 2010, Frantz realized his modern coaching philosophy. It’s his approach to getting the most out of his golfers.
“They need to play a lot of tournaments, get a lot of experience, and understand that they’re only as good as their last round,” Frantz said. “And they have to keep trying to get better — that’s the key.”
All of September and October is ahead before the 3A state championship from Nov. 13-14. To their coach, the team’s regular-season tournaments are opportunities to see where they stand.
If the Mustangs do find their way back to Howey-in-the-Hills, and on the course of Mission Resort and Club, they will have something else on the line.
They’ll be playing for redemption.
