GRAY — Standing over a ball on the first tee at Spring Meadows Golf Club can be staggering. The first hole snakes its way around a small pond, and the landing area narrows with each yard the ball travels.

When the Gray-New Gloucester High School golf team strides to that first tee on Friday for its first home match of the season, despite the daunting drive that awaits each player, their minds will likely be elsewhere.

Three-point-eight miles away, to be exact.

Always smiling

Joshua Libby never stopped smiling.

“He always had a smile on his face,” Gray-New Gloucester teacher and golf coach Aaron Talon said. “There was nothing you could say to the kid to put a frown on his face.”

Last spring, Libby tried to sneak into the school’s gymnasium to shoot hoops during baseball practice. Talon told him he couldn’t be there.

“Even then,” Talon said, “he said, ‘Oh, O.K.,’ and he started asking me how I thought the team was going to be this year, how we were looking. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t do what he’d wanted to do in the first place, he was just happy to be there, to have someone to talk to.”

As a sophomore on the golf team in 2008, Libby was close to cracking a senior-laden lineup, but just wasn’t quite ready. He played in junior varsity ‘exhibition’ matches, though.

“We played in one match last year together against these two other kids from another team,” senior Lance Nunley said. “He just kept on cracking jokes all the time, and they never stopped laughing.”

Even if his teammates weren’t in the same group with him, though, they always knew where he was.

“He could be like four or five holes away, clear across the course and you could hear him scream across the course at you,” senior Tim Pomerleau said. “Everybody in between would be like, ‘Who the heck is that? Who’s he talking to?’ And I’d just be there laughing at him.”

“He was a big part of this team,” Talon said. “He may not have been in the top six, but everyone wanted to play with him.”

Talon said that with work over the summer, Libby would be in good shape to earn a varsity position to begin the 2009 golf season.

“He was out here all the time, and he was close as a sophomore,” Talon said. “He had sniffed the top six a bit last season and he played in a bunch of JV matches. We were expecting big things from him this season.”

Everything changed

On Tuesday, June 9, Libby was a passenger in a Ford Explorer driven by teammate Ben Farynaz. Just before 3 p.m., according to police and eyewitness reports, Farynaz failed to stop the Explorer at the corner of Bennett Rd. and Routes 202 and 100 in New Gloucester.

A large van struck the SUV, throwing it into the woods, where it came to rest on its side.

Libby died in the crash, less than four miles away from the first tee of a golf course he’d hoped to tame this fall.

Three-point-eight miles away, to be exact.

Moving forward

“Sometimes, if I’m driving by at night, I stop and light a few of the candles back up,” senior Robbie Morency said.

“He’s just over there, just beyond those trees,” Pomerleau added, pointing toward the cemetery where Libby is buried, just beyond the trees lining the 12th and 13th holes, “and he’s always here, with us.”

Libby’s former teammates, also close friends away from the golf course, have banded together.

“A lot of times, you’ll find that kids move on more quickly than adults do in situations like this,” Talon said. “This one’s been different in a lot of ways.”

Over the summer, when this year’s crop of varsity players started to get some practice rounds in, it was odd not to call Libby.

“I still have his number in my cell phone,” Pomerleau said. “I go through my phone sometimes to see who’s around that wants to play golf, and I still stop on it every time.”

The awkward feeling continued when the team first got together for tryouts.

“You come out on the putting green, the first day of tryouts, and it was weird to go out there and not see Josh there,” Morency said.

But, the players said, life — and golf — will go on. It may be tougher at first, but when it’s all said and done, what matters most is the memories they share.

“He’d never want us to dwell on the fact that he’s gone,” senior Ryan Barton said.  “He’d want us to try and keep going and get better.”

“It’s tough for us, playing with someone for that long, and then your senior year, you’re looking forward to having your whole team there and going out with a bang,” Pomerleau said. “Sometimes, I think, ‘Are we still going to be able to go out with that same kind of bang that we wanted to?’ I know that we will now, for him.”

Here is a short breakdown of each of the area’s conferences, and what to expect in each.

KVAC A

It’s been a slow but steady rebuilding process at Lewiston High School, and this year the team should be one of the better squads in the conference and, at the very least, one of the better teams in its division. The Blue Devils return two top-level golfers in Scott Gagne and Eric Hall, and the return of Nick Mathon to the fold will help the depth of this team. The youth on the squad has enormous potential, and if they can mature as the season progresses, the Devils will be a team to be reckoned with, not only this season, but next year, too.

Oxford Hills is another of those teams slowly coming into their own. The Vikings have been solid at home, and if they can find a bit of road magic, they could also be a sleeper.

Low numbers have Edward Little scrambling. The Eddies are fine at the top, but have little depth. If the team can figure out how to boost the numbers a bit, they could steal a win or two this year.

In the North, Mt. Blue graduated some key golfers, and the teams from the greater Bangor area are said to be very strong. Look for the Cougars to hang tough, especially at home, and if they can steal a road victory or two, a return trip to the playoffs isn’t out of the question.

KVAC B

Leavitt drops a level to Class B this year, and it may benefit the Hornets. They were on the rise in Class A, and the drop to B will only quicken that move. New courses and new opponents may be an obstacle early, but look for the Hornets to adjust quickly.

Oak Hill has nowhere to go but up, and the Raiders ought to do just that. The B division is tough, with Waterville and Camden Hills and Medomak Valley in the mix. Anything north of 2 to 3 wins would be a victory for this squad.

MVC

The talk of the MVC in recent seasons has been Mountain Valley. The Falcons enter the season undefeated in conference play for two consecutive seasons. They are a bit down this season in numbers, and lost a bunch of talent, but you can never count this hard-working team out of the picture.

St. Dom’s is the new talk of the conference. A transition year for the Saints, it’s going to be a change of pace for the former WMC school. Playing Fox Ridge will be a tremendous asset, and despite graduating three very good golfers, there are plenty waiting in the wings to take over.

Telstar may be one year away from title contention, but it is much improved from last season, and is not going to go down lightly, even against some of the conference’s powerhouses like Madison and St. Dom’s. The Rebels lost one golfer, and this year’s core is still young.

Winthrop went unbeaten in the regular season last year, and lost three of its top five to graduation. But with a healthy No. 1 coming in, and five senior starters, the Ramblers will again be in the mix.

Livermore Falls and Dirigo will be in the middle of the pack, and could play spoiler this season to a lot of teams, especially at home.

WMC

The departure of St. Dom’s paints a whole new landscape in the WMC this season, and all of the Saints’ former opponents have suffered major losses to graduation.

Best off in the bunch may be Poland. The Knights are now three years removed from a large loss to graduation, and have rebuilt nicely.

Gray-New Gloucester graduated five of its top six players, and were struck with the loss of another in an automobile accident this summer. The memory of their fallen friend will certainly inspire the Patriots this season, and their talent should keep them in most matches. Lake Region and Fryeburg are also reportedly down a bit this season, making the division a free-for-all.

EWC

Buckfield was awfully close to taking the EWC title last season. Two of the Bucks’ golfers qualified for states, and both have graduated. But rival Greenville has also lost a couple of golfers, and coach Charlie Williams is optimistic that his squad can again take the conference title and earn a berth in the state tourney.