By Brady Cote
@brady.cote
As the fall semester has begun, the Springfield College golf team already has their season underway. After finishing first in their conference the past two years, the team has high expectations as they continue to play.
With the bar set so high, the team aspires to win their conference for a third straight season. Senior on the team, Corey Roya reflects on this past season and how the team placed.
“We had a really good team, we won the conference back to back actually so that was the second time in a row that we won the conference so that was a pretty big accomplishment,” said Roya. “We finished in the top ten of a couple of other tournaments which were pretty big, so we had a pretty good season overall.”
Since then, the team has graduated a few of their athletes, leaving Roya as the only senior left on the team. Winning the conference for the third straight year is not the only thing at stake for the team. If the team is able to successfully pull off the three-peat, they will be qualified to go to nationals. Although it is a tall order, Roya says the team is looking forward to the challenge.
“I think in the poll we’re ranked 2nd right now,” Roya said. “Westfield State is 1st, they didn’t graduate many guys so they got a similar squad. We got a pretty young team overall, but we’re going to do great.”
Prior to the season, the team has been putting in the work to reach the bar they have set for themselves.
“Everybody has practiced a bunch over the summer to get ready for the season, and I know a few guys on the team have personal swing coaches, I have one as well so we get to work with some professional guys who will give us some tips to get ready,” Roya said. Obviously, we have Coach Eadie as well to help us out and get in good form for our tournaments.”
Coach Joe Eadie is no stranger to the Springfield College golf team, as he is entering his 29th season of being the head coach. The team is in good hands with such a decorated coach who is able to help his team while playing 9 holes, or even swing the clubs at the driving range.
The team is not losing sight of their goal to win the conference to get to nationals, as they focus on the task at hand. Each day of practice is crucial to getting better, whether it is on the course or the driving range.
“We take it day by day, sometimes we’ll play nine holes at either Wilberham or Westover, and other days we’ll go to Fenway Golf to hit balls, and coach will work with us and help us out with stuff we need to work on,” said Roya.
This week, the team has the opportunity to visit the conference course and use it to their advantage, as they get familiar with all 18 holes.
“It’s a newer course than the ones we’ve played so hopefully that practice round will help us out a lot,” said Roya.
This past weekend the team traveled to the Ralph Myhre Golf Course at Middlebury College where they would place 12th out of 23 teams. Springfield was consistent in the first round on Saturday, however, the team steadily improved as each of their final scores was lower on Sunday.
The five men who traveled this weekend to play in the tournament were junior, Aidan McBride, junior, Nicholas DeMaio, senior, Corey Roya, sophomore, Jack Shane, and sophomore, Damon Monks. Each individually faired off better in the second round of the tournament, as they all lowered their strokes.
“We played a lot better today [Sunday] than we did yesterday so it was good that the whole team improved from the scores in the first round,” Roya added.
Reflecting on the tournament this weekend, Roya expressed how it felt good to get back out there and compete.
“It felt good to be back in competition, it’s been a couple of years so it was good to kinda be under the gun and hit some shots under pressure which was nice,” said Roya. “I hit a bunch of good shots so it was a good weekend overall.”
The team is in great shape as they look to three-peat their conference, and head to nationals. All of the hard work the men are putting in over the summer and at practice is going to translate into a great season.
Next on the agenda for Springfield is the MASCAC Preview on Tuesday which will take place at the Berkshire Hills Country Club. The team plans to take each competition and lower their strokes as they inch closer to the conference meet.