Squad seeks to rebuild

In the cold, dead heart of winter, let's have a swing at some warm thoughts about golf.

The Arlington High School squad had a year perhaps some would like to forget, yet it's worth teeing up what may be best about last fall's team and look ahead to rebuilding.

As fall blew by us, the AHS golf season ended -- and just in time. The team's final record was 2-14-1.

That record looks a lot worse than the players really did, considering what they had to go through. This was a tough transition year, moving from the Greater Boston League to the much stronger Dual County League. The team also had to overcome the loss of seven seniors last year.

Despite these two obstacles, the golfers were able to pick up wins against two solid teams -- Watertown, a nonleague game, and Tyngsboro. Senior Captain Alex Schreiber called the 2008 season a "rebuilding year," mainly because the younger players were gaining more experience, and their golf program is growing more popular each year. This will besure to bring interest to young players that haven’t reached high schoolyet and kids that may want to play next year.

The team consists of 14 players; eight of them play regularly, while four of them fill in the seventh and eighth position. The other two don't play on a regular basis.

In late August, interested golfers attend tryouts at AHS. According to sophomore Matt Plourde, "The tryouts are basically hitting balls into a net so that the coach can evaluate your swing. Then [you] go out to the baseball field and hit real balls to an orange cone about 110 yards out. The coach checks your accuracy."

If these two tests are passed and the golfer trying out makes the team, he or she will eventually be placed into slots. The position of these slots is based on the team member's skills. A player that is considered to be one of the best on the team will be placed in the first slot. Another good player will be placed into the second slot, and it goes on in descending order.

This setup helps two competing teams match up; one team's top players will face the other team's best. The winner of these individual matches’ gains a point for the team, leading, one hopes, to an overall victory.

The switch from the Greater Boston League to the Dual County League was a major change. Over the past few years, Dual County was a lot more challenging than the GBL.

Schreiber said, "The individuals on every team were a lot more enthusiastic than the players in the GBL. Most of the kids are members of one or more country clubs and play all year round." The average scores for the DCL were a lot lower than the GBL.

At the end of the season, the top two players from each team are selected to play in the Dual County All-Star game. Schreiber and Stephen Leveroni from AHS were selected to play this year.

Coaches from different teams vote for what kids should play in the All-Star game. The game was played at Quail Ridge in Acton. It was 18 holes of stroke play (every stroke is counted, and the lowest score wins). Stroke play is different from the regular season, which is match play (one who wins the most holes).

The Arlington High School golf team finished its season Oct. 16 with a 6 to 6 tie against Bedford. That brought its overall record for the season to 2-14-1.

"I would like to see the team have as much fun as possible while playing a sport that they enjoy." 

This story was written by Arlington High School students Nick Schaejbe and Mike Griffin, both seniors.