Joey Fracassi spent his four years at Dexter High School in the classroom, on the ice and on the golf course – and aced all three. The graduating senior played on both the varsity hockey team and the varsity golf team all four years for the Dreadnaughts.
Fracassi’s final round at DHS was impressive as he helped lead the Dexter varsity golf team to the State Finals. The Dreadnaughts qualified for the states by one stroke at Regionals and landed 16th overall on the challenging Forest Akers West course in East Lansing in June. The Dreadnaughts carded a 331 on Friday and then shot 339 on Saturday.
Fracassi, who earned All-Conference this season for the Dreads, shot an 85 on the first day and an 82 on day two for a 167 total.
“I thought we had a lot of success, and we accomplished my goal which was making it to states,” Fracassi said. “I thought we played well but never had a round where everyone played their best, which kept us from winning a couple tournaments. But overall, we had a good season.”
This wasn’t Fracassi’s first round at the state finals. He earned his mark with the team at the states as a sophomore when Dexter qualified for the Division 1 Finals for the first time in school history.
“There was a lot more pressure this time since the first time we went my score wasn’t supposed to count,” he says. “I was there just for the experience and to have fun. But this time I had a bigger role and it also was my last ever high school tournament so I wanted to end on a high note.”
Fracassi knows that golf can be frustrating but it also can be rewarding – and “you can always get better.”
“You will always walk away from a round thinking of those couple shots you wish you could get back and that makes the game fun to me,” he says. “It gets me to want to go back and play it again.”
Fracassi, 18, says his strength on the golf course was his short game.
“As I struggled this year with my irons at times, I found myself having to rely on my short game to get up and down to save pars,” he said. “Also, I am very calm during my rounds and just enjoy being out on the course. If I hit a bad shot it doesn’t really bother me, and I just hope my next one is better.”
Fracassi’s other passion was playing hockey. And he went out on a high note on the ice as well. He finished with 40 points and was named All-Conference his senior year.
“I started playing hockey before I played golf,” he says. “My season went really well and the team also played well. One of the highlights was winning a playoff game.”
Joey, the son of Jen and Rod Fracassi, had a 3.7 GPA at Dexter. He is heading to Michigan State next month and will study business.
“I am hoping to play club golf and maybe club hockey,” he said.
