With a nice balance of youth and experience, the nine players who make up this year’s squad are just as zeroed-in on helping one another and enjoying their shared experiences on the course as they are at winning tournaments – which is to say neither goal is sacrificed for the other.
“Coming into the year, I think the focus of our team was more on having fun and bonding,” said junior Lauren Porcher. “We’ve centered ourselves on unity.”
So far, that philosophy has benefitted the team both on the course and off it.
Led by senior Jenny Andreas, who is the team’s captain and is contending for an individual Los Padres League title, the team is sitting in third place in the league standings and has been in the top half of the leaderboard in most of its tournaments. Some of the most memorable moments for the golfers, though, didn’t occur on any fairway or green.
The players enjoy bonding days where they all hang out together and watch movies or do some scrap-booking while also taking in a team meal. They also tutor each other on coursework and say that the van trips to and from golf courses are often the most fun aspects of the trip. Before the season, the team went as a group to Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo to pick out its uniforms for the season.
“We all get together and laugh all the time at school, too,” sophomore Molly Callaghan added.
John Nicholas, a pro at the Alisal Ranch Course for the last six years, is in his second season assisting the Pirates along with head coach Gretchen Smith. Nicholas and Smith each agree that this is the closest they’ve ever seen a team – in any sport – with such selflessness.
“I’ve always been involved in team sports, and I have never seen a more cohesive team than what we have here,” Nicholas said. “It is just absolutely a pleasure to work with them from that perspective. They’re always looking out for each other, and what’s really nice – and I’ve found this with everyone on the team – is their willingness to accept instruction and their ability to take that instruction and actually put it into play. It’s really rewarding to see that.”
That progress has been on full display this season.
Nicholson had been working on mechanics with Callaghan, and the sophomore responded by finishing with a personal best score of 53 – four strokes better than her previous personal mark – in a meet against Nipomo on Sept. 27 at Monarch Dunes. Smith said she was texting Nicholson from the course to immediately share the good news.
“I was like, ‘John, the things you were working on with her really worked,’” she recalled while laughing. “It is really rewarding.”
It was during a recent trip that Smith said her team’s willingness to sacrifice for one another was most apparent. Andreas, who is just a stroke off the league’s individual lead, behind only Morro Bay’s Jennifer Baltimore, wasn’t in the van while Smith was talking to the other players and offering encouragement. When she brought up Andreas’ quest for a league championship and a berth in the CIF individual tournament, the coach said the other players instantly turned their attention to how they could best help Andreas.
“The girls were saying to me, ‘OK, how can we support Jenny?’” she said. “That’s the nature of these girls. They were thinking, ‘How can we help her?’”
One of the ways the team has tried to help Andreas is by taking some responsibility off of her shoulders, such as keeping scorecards and other pre-match tasks, and spreading them out among the entire team.
Even Andreas deflects attention from herself and instead tries to focus on the team as a whole when discussing her own game. Her nine-hole average this season is in the mid-40s and she has multiple top-two finishes, including a first-place score in the first tournament of the season.
When asked if she’s been the top performer for the Pirates this season, Andreas hesitates before teammate Bryana Schuyler answers for her.
“It’s the best for everyone else, but she doesn’t think it’s her best,” she said of Andreas.
Added teammate Lauren Porcher: “She’s kind of the center of our team – the glue.”
Smith said she’s confident Andreas will be a coach someday. “She’s got that natural innate ability within herself,” she said. The team will be at the Rancho Maria course on Thursday, Oct. 4, for a tournament hosted by Santa Maria. Noting the progress that each player has already made this season, Nicholson said that hopes are high for the final few weeks of the season.
“To have watched them develop over the last two months has been incredible,” he said. “Some who started with really remedial swings are starting to hit the ball like they’ve been around for a year or two. It’s been really nice.”
While the strong play on the course has been an added bonus, Smith said she is most proud of the group of golfers really grasping the team concept. She said that hasn’t always been the case with previous teams she has coached, but she feels like the players are realizing that this way is best for all involved.
“I’d rather have a team that’s cohesive,” she said, “than one where some think they’re better than everyone else.”