Girls’ golf: Season ends in success

The girls’ golf team has come a long way. What began as a rebuilding year has turned into a year full of victories and CCS berths.

“I’m truly proud of our girls for competing the way they did and playing their hearts out every game,” coach David Gragnola said.

The team opened the season with plenty of raw talent that needed to be polished, according to Gragnola.

Gragnola’s philosophy was to develop players individually and let them play to their strengths. Gragnola said he was just as confident in the No. 5 player as the No. 1 player.

Gragnola has transformed a team that lost all 14 games last year into one that finished 14-10 overall (7-5 in league) this season and earned second place in the league tournament. Gragnola said that at one point, five different players from Saratoga had the lowest scores in the match.

“We showed that we had a dangerous amount of depth on a team with brilliant players,” Gragnola said.

Astonishingly, Gragnola not only helped his players on their mental side, but he also helped fix small mechanical errors in their swings. He helped the stars of the team, senior Samika Kumar, junior Sara Pettersson and Sanjna Verma, sophomores Sachi Verma and Halle Champion, shine even brighter. He helped polish the younger players like freshman Vivian Roan and prepare them for the leap to excellence in the coming years.

“Everyone’s scores from the beginning of the year to the end drastically improved by five to eight strokes,” Gragnola said.

Individual improvements resulted in huge gains for the team. After barely inching past Los Gatos 266-271 at the start of league play on Sept. 19, the girl golfers obliterated Los Gatos by 32 strokes in its final match on Oct. 18.

After failing to send any last season, the Falcons will send three golfers to CCS: Champion, Verma and Pettersson.

“The team had great chemistry and had a lot of fun practicing at Saratoga Country Club and playing together. It was fun to see all the players play for each other,” Gragnola said.