Ben Sattler shined in hockey and golf in high school and had the potential to play both in college.
When coach Bob Cooley looked at his roster this year, he probably didn't know he had a dual athlete on his team.
Starting from a young age, freshman golfer Ben Sattler was infatuated with hockey. He watched the New York Islanders from a young age and started playing hockey when he was 6 years old, according to his mom, Amy Sattler.
Sattler played recreational hockey for a few years growing up and played travel hockey until his freshman year of high school. Entering his first year at Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, he had every intention of playing hockey at the collegiate level.
That is until golf came into the picture.
His freshman year of high school, Sattler played junior varsity golf. By his sophomore year, he was contributing on the varsity squad. During his sophomore year, Sattler said he started to get serious about golf. The previous summer he played in a few tournaments and earned some top 10 finishes and recorded a hole-in-one for the first time.
“After my sophomore year I started contacting schools about playing golf,” he said. "My experience has grown each year, starting at freshman year.”
During Sattler’s senior season of golf at Archbishop Moeller, he finished fifth in the state and led his team to the school’s first-ever state championship in golf.
“Ben was a great young man and captain,” Sattler’s high school golf coach Rick Bohne said. “He never got rattled or bothered about anything, and we had a bond where we could express our opinions to each other. Players help coaches grow, and they make you want to give your best, and that is what Ben and his teammates did his senior year.”
With all the success he found with golf in high school, he found the same amount of success with hockey. When Sattler wasn't perfecting his stroke on the fairway, he was dominating the ice. Sattler served as a team captain his junior and senior year. He received awards two years in a row for his work as a defensemen.
“I knew a bunch of people who played at Moeller. Hockey was my No. 1 sport growing up,” Sattler said. “My dad played in high school and college. It's just what I did. I loved traveling around and playing hockey. Once I got to high school I realized maybe I wasn’t fast enough, skills may not be quite good enough. I just decided to have fun with it.”
Sattler said he loved playing hockey, and he was able to have fun and avoid injury throughout his four years at Moeller, but ultimately, golf was his calling.
“I think Ben was perfectly capable of playing college hockey,” Sattler’s hockey coach Mike Reeder said. “Yes, Ben was the ideal player for me. He was a great defenseman. For two years we played him every other shift. I’m happy Ben is playing golf at Ohio. I went to Ohio, and I think it will be a great fit for him.”
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In Ohio’s first tournament of the year, Sattler got his first go at college golf. He was one of five Bobcats to play, shooting a 7-over-par, throughout the 54-hole Redbird Invitational.
“I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen,” Sattler said about his first college tournament.
“It was definitely different playing 36 holes in one day. It was new to me, but I adjusted just fine. It is a grind out there. I can definitely can get better.”
Besides both high school coaches agreed that Sattler was an exceptional player, and both plan on going to some of his golf matches throughout his college career.
"He's done a pretty good job so far," Ohio's Cooley said on Sattler's play this year. "It's a big jump from high school golf to college golf. I think he's going to be a good player."
@Pete_Nakos96
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