Boys’ golf team anticipating victories

The boys’ golf team is off to a good start this year after beating Lynbrook on Feb. 27, Monta Vista on March 3, and Los Gatos and Milpitas on March 10, leading to a 4-0 record for the Falcons as of March 10.

Junior Robby Gragnola and senior Christian Galvin shared medalist honors in the first two matches for having the best results for either school and led the SHS team in the last two matches.

A week earlier, on Feb. 24, the Falcons received seventh place out of the 16 teams competing in a tournament at Salinas.

“When we got there, the weather was really nice, but after a few holes, it got really windy,” freshman Nathan Shang said. “From what I heard, nobody was playing too well either. I shot 90, and we finished with seventh place.”

Even though the first tournament did not go as well as the Falcons hoped, Shang thinks that they will improve with time.

“We will do better as the season goes by and end up where we should be,” Shang said.

Before these tournaments, the Falcons faced a challenge that put more pressure on them than the tournament — tryouts.

“Our tryouts didn’t go as well as we planned, mainly because of the rainy weather,” Galvin said. “But besides that, everyone came back from last year doing pretty well.”

One big loss from last year’s team was No. 1 player Robbie Parden, a 2013 graduate.

Because of this, many underclassmen are stepping up to fill key spots on the team.

Shang is one of those underclassmen.

“Shang definitely stands out amongst the underclassmen,” Galvin said. “I think he has a good amount of talent, but as of now, the team is mainly relying on the upperclassmen because they’ve been at it for so long.”

Other newcomers, however, are not on the traveling team, are freshmen William Chen, Won Hee-Lee, Trevor Leung, and Wyatt Schulman.