For the second year in a row Brooks Secondary School golf team competed at the provincial level and came home with a 10th place win and a lot of experience.
The team lost two key players from last year who graduated so they knew they would have some work to do to get back up to form. To get to the provincials the team of 10 players had to be whittled down to a team of the top five players, leaving Josh Legge, grade 11, Aaron Fitch, grade 12, Talyor Henderson, grade 11, Cole Yungen, grade 12, and John Kutz, grade 11, competing.
Those players competed in the North Island Championship at Crown Isle Golf Course in Courtenay for a fourth place finish which moved them up to the Island Championships at Royal Colwood Golf Course in Victoria. Ten schools competed in Victoria and the Brooks team again placed fourth, one stroke shy of a tie for third and in the last position to qualify for the provincials.
“We knew we had to play well to get there and we did,” said Legge. “We made it. We did good.”
With a challenging course and stiff competition the Brooks team held its own at provincials at The Dunes golf course in Kamloops and ended up in 10th place out of 22 schools. Legge went to the provincials last year and this year shot 75 both days as the top scorer of the team. The highlight of his weekend came on a 290-yard par four where Legge drove on to the green and two putted for a birdie.
“For Brooks it has been pretty good because we’re a pretty small school,” said Mike Austin, who coaches the team alongside Jim Simonetta. Austin pointed out that many other schools have access to golf academies and multiple courses with an array of golf pros and instructors. For Brooks to make the provincials two years running is an accomplishment all itself, said the coaches, and they are in a good position next year to perhaps make the cut again.
Simonetta and Austin would like to see some girls join the team too, as the sport is coed. A girl got the best score of anyone at the provincials, with a 68 round, and many more competed. Brooks has had two players go on to receive college scholarships in the United States, including the one female player the team has had. Austin said a shortage of competition gives talented female golfers a relatively good chance of getting a scholarship.
Coaches and players agree that the game of golf teaches discipline, patience, concentration and sportsmanship and is a unique sport for students to become involved with.
“It teaches you a lot,” said Legge. “You have to be respectful to play the game because if someone’s putting you can’t be talking. You have to have discipline.”
