Coming off an undefeated season last year in El Camino League Championship and a 2nd-place finish in the Los Altos Tournament in the same season, the girl’s golf team has moved into a more competitive division this season, girl’s golf coach Joanna Butcher said. The team has been working on rebuilding after five seniors graduated, and one player did not return this year, she added.
“When I say ‘rebuilding,’ it’s more like our expectations are being a little bit more realistic and looking at what we can do success- fully with each individual,” Butch- er said.
The year before last was the first year with a girl’s team separate from the boy’s, Butcher said. Previous seasons are not very comparable since they are different individuals and are going up against stronger players overall, she added.
“We’re going to be kind of in be- tween,” Butcher said. “We’re not totally starting – starting over from the very, very beginning, but there are some aspects to that. We’ve got aspects of the successful season and aspects of the first year trying to build a team.”
The current record is 2-7-1, according to the girl’s golf website. The team is starting to improve after their first league win against Los Altos, Butcher said.
“Our ultimate goal is trying to make sure we can get at least three of our golfers to qualify for the league tournament,” Butcher said. “They can qualify as an individual, and then how they do at the league tournament can de- termine whether or not they can qualify for CCS.”
One way the team works to- wards individual improvement is by creating mini-goals and seeing how each person improves over time, Butcher said.
Junior Courtney Phan, one of the only two juniors on the team, stressed the importance of focus- ing on one mini-goal at a time.
“As long as you have one thing that you can be happy about at the end of the match, then it was a good match,” Phan said.
The team is less worried about overall team scores and more about what each player is able to do, Butcher said. “It’s like that light-bulb moment when somebody figures out how to do something,” Butcher said.
For instance, freshman Anya Agarwal met her mini goal of get- ting a single par, the standard number of strokes a hole takes to complete, Butcher said.
“They all congratulated me and everything on the spot and that was basically our celebration, us being together as a team,” Agarw- al said.
The team members talk to each other through things and help each other with their swings, Phan said.
“We make up nicknames for things,” Phan said. “We fart in fairways, we burp in bunkers, and we gas up the greens. It’s just silly little things like that; it helps.”
It helps to have a good relation- ship with the girls to make them more comfortable to reach out, Phan said. As one of the more experienced players on the team, she is open to her teammates like how her graduated seniors were to her, she added.
“And every time I take a little break, I always try to look at what they’re doing and then see how I can help them and their performance,” Phan said.
Along with her teammates, Butcher cares and dedicates a lot of time to supporting them by enforcing fun and development, Phan added. “Every match she does her creepy little smile, and it makes everybody uncomfortable and break out in laughter,” Phan said.
Game losses are nothing to be upset over, and she mainly wants to see her teammates have a good time and meet their goals, Phan said. “Have fun, create memories and friendships, but in the end, once we’re actually practicing, then it’s focus on you and focus on what you’re doing.” Phan said.