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07/09/2018 12:00 AMThe Valley Regional golf team worked hard this spring and saw steady improvement from all of its players during the year. The Warriors finished with two wins on the season, but the squad was focused just as much on instruction as it was with the results of its matches.
The most important thing for Valley Head Coach David Sparrow was that his golfers saw progress in their games. The Warriors didn’t feature many seasoned veterans, and so Sparrow wanted his team to get a better feel for the sport, while also having fun.
“Overall, we performed as expected. Most of the players were beginning golfers without much experience. My goal was to get some improvement out of each of them over the course of the season,” said Sparrow, whose team posted wins over Hale-Ray and East Hampton this year. “We had a good group of kids with a good attitude. They all listened and tried, and they just had fun with it.”
One of the Warriors’ top performers this year was senior Sam Paulson. Paulson earned Valley’s Lowest Scoring Average Award with a season average of 51, in addition to shooting the Warriors’ low score of the year with a round of 42. Coach Sparrow believes that Paulson’s attitude is a huge help on the golf course.
“This was his second year on the team. He was our best player and he improved steadily throughout the year,” said Sparrow, who finished his seventh season as Valley’s head coach. “He was a really good kid and had a great attitude. That’s why he got progressively better throughout the season.”
In a campaign that emphasized improvement, junior Kevin Fasulo took home the Warriors’ Most Improved Award this year. Sparrow said that Fasulo benefited from learning that form is more important than power on the links.
“He’s a very athletic kid with limited golf experience. That tends to lead to swinging hard and hitting it all over the place,” Sparrow said. “He made two or three changes to his approach and he hit the ball so much better as the season went along.”
Senior Max Klin received the Warriors’ Most Coachable Award. Coach Sparrow liked that Klin was always open to feedback and absorbed what he learned.
“He was receptive to everything I told him. Sometimes people nod and just end up going right back what they were doing before, but he would stick to it and work on it diligently,” said Sparrow. “He never got down on himself. He was a good kid to be around.”
Other seniors who competed for the Warriors this year included Logan Ashton, Kevin Michel, and Mitch Nelson. Coach Sparrow determined his lineup for each match based on the season averages of his players. It allowed the golfers with the best scores to compete, while still giving everyone a chance to get in the pack.
“Who plays in the matches strictly based on scores. Every practice round I keep a score, and the six players get a chance to compete,” Sparrow said. “I do a running average, so kids have a way to play their way into matches. It takes the subjectivity completely out of it. It’s also pretty casual for some of these guys. I don’t pressure them too hard to perform. It’s more of a fun thing for a lot of them.”
As a result of the Sparrow’s method, some of the Warriors’ younger players like freshmen Zach Figuenick and Henry McPherson gained some important experience this season. Coach Sparrow believes that Figuenick and McPherson have a knack for golf and, with a little more guidance, he thinks they can be solid players for Valley in the coming years.
“They’re both relatively new golfers, but they have some native ability,” Sparrow said. “With more experience and more play time, they will develop into consistently good players.”
In the end, Coach Sparrow wants to provide a good atmosphere for his athletes to learn the finer points of the sport. As long as his team has a good time and gets better along the way, Sparrow feels that he’s done his job. As for next year, Sparrow hopes that more kids, including female students, become interested in joining the program.
“I think that this year, everyone had a good time. There was a good dynamic on the team,” Sparrow said. “I’m looking forward to next year and I hope more kids come out. I’d love to have a girl come out for the team, too. It would add a new dynamic.”