The Southeast High School boys golf seniors, Adam Peelish, Matt Wood and Nolan Truex, stand next to their Cleveland Pear Tree.
Special to Portage Sports

By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The Southeast Pirates golf program is forever connected to the Cleveland Pear Tree.

The line of the trees that stretch down both sides of the first tee box at the Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course is part of a tradition that started nearly 10 years ago by head coach Cindy Fesemyer on her team’s home course.

Fesemyer’s idea was for each graduating senior class to plant a Cleveland Pear Tree on the course.

It was an idea that was both simple and profound.

The simple part was that Fesemyer just “loves the shape of a Cleveland Pear Tree.”

The line of Cleveland Pear Trees that line the first tee box at Olde Dutch Mill.
Special to Portage Sports

The profound part was Fesemyer’s hope that the tree would signify something deeper to her seniors, while also providing the course with something in return.

“It is difficult to think about how to put the idea into words,” said Fesemyer, whose assistant Joe Pinti has also played a role in making the tradition happen each year. “We spend so much time on the course from the spring through the summer and into the fall. And the course brings so much joy to me and the kids, so planting the trees became a way to give something back to the course. It gives so much to us.”

As the trees grow each year, returning Southeast alumni pick out their tree, see how much it has changed.

Each year it is a little taller. A little fuller. And with a new tree added to the line to join the family.

“I remember the first year I presented the idea. The girls were like, ‘What?! We are going to plant a tree,’?” Fesemyer laughed. “It wasn’t that they didn’t like the idea, but I think it just caught them off guard. With golf, what our goal is, is that these kids enjoy the sport enough that they keep playing. So when they come back to the course, they see their tree and remember planting it. They can come back to the course as parents and maybe even grandparents and their tree will be there. The idea of that just makes my heart sing.”

Fesemyer’s idea was championed by course owner Ron Birchak and course Superintendent Scott Thomas coordinates and oversees the tree planting and maintenance.

The thought has been so well received that Southeast boys head coach Mike Jenior has adopted it for his program as well.

The 2022 Southeast girls golf team did not have any seniors, so the Southeast boys team stepped in to join the Cleveland Pear Tree tradition.

Under each tree is a plaque with the players’ names and years, while some of the trees from the tradition’s formative years include homemade signs that Fesemyer decorated and wrote poems on.

“It has become something special,” said Fesemyter, whose Pirates are one of four teams that call the course home throughout the season, joining Jackson-Milton, Austintown Fitch and Mineral Ridge. “And Ron (Birchak) has been so supportive. He really makes his course family friendly, and he has always been open to some of my crazy ideas.”

Pirates and Pear Trees. It may sound crazy, but only for a second until the idea is understood on a deeper level and then it turns into something special real quick.