Boys’ golf team tees off for spring 2002 season

 

Satch Gonzales

Boys' golf has begun its 2002 season. Sixteen players make up the boys' golf roster, including one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and ten freshmen. The senior is David Osborne. The leading players, according to the coach, include junior Dan Montag and sophomore Andy Medley.

Coach Eric Hansen is happy about this year's team including the large number of talented freshmen. The number of freshmen is, according to Hansen, the largest ever. Coach Hansen's hopes for a championship may not be realistic with the age of the main portion of the team.

In two years, when the freshmen of today are more experienced, championship hopes will be raised greatly.

Tournaments before daylights savings time are nine holes and after daylights savings time, they are the standard 18 holes. Tournaments include five to six schools.  Matches are just two schools with six players per school. Boys' golf plays against the league schools, including Kingsburg, San Joaquin Memorial and Selma.  Boys' golf has gotten a lot of seconds to SJM over the years, as well as a few firsts. They have never been "at the bottom," says Hansen.

Practices are every day at Rivercreek Country Club. Practices run during seventh period and last until 5 p.m. Practice encompasses the entire golf course, including the putting green, as well as the driving range. Coach Hansen tries to have them get in at least nine holes per practice. The players are expected to have their own equipment including clubs and bags.

When asked about Sierra High, Coach Hansen says it is hard to tell if his team is better than Sierra because of the new group of freshmen and the fact that they had not played Sierra yet at the time of this interview.