Central Catholic Golf State Champs

State Champions!

State Champions!

As you may have already heard, the Central Catholic varsity golf team has been named the new 2016 PIAA state champion. The team has been constantly planning and training to win the state championship this year, and it ended up paying off. Varsity practices are held at Edgewood Country Club where they train to be champions. The varsity golf team, coaches Corey O’Conner and Jason Ott, consists of nine athletes, Seniors Vinny Meinert, Teddy Sluser, Matt Delrosso, and Jake Smithco, Junior Joe Pronio, and Sophomores Neal Shipley, Shane Kelley, Jimmy Meyers, and Tyler Blake. The team has been in season from mid-August until the championships on October 22nd to the 24th and are thrilled to be the new state champs. Joe Pronio, one of the members on the team said, “It was just awesome winning and playing in states. It’s also amazing that we’re the greatest team ever in Pennsylvania because we broke the state record. It felt awesome to bring the state title to central for the first time in school history.” It goes to show how great it feels for these athletes when they win something as big as a state championship. The whole team is thrilled that they were able to keep the role of the Central Catholic Golf Team and win yet another championship to go along with all of their achievements.

The finals were held at Heritage Hills Golf Resort and Conference Center in a town called York, in South Eastern Pennsylvania. Each match of the rigorous 18 hole course tested each player’s ability to compete in front of each other.  The Vikings showed they could compete with anyone who tried to stand against them. The entire event lasted a total of 3 days in which athletes from across Pennsylvania competed for the title. The tournament consisted of qualifiers and then, the finals, where the Vikings showed what they were capable of doing. In the qualifiers, Central showed their opponents their strength with Matt Delrosso coming in 3rd shooting a 73 and Jimmy Meyers tied for 10th shooting a 77. Central beat four other teams in the final match with Jimmy Meyers(’19) leading the team shooting a 72 with 1 over par and Neal Shipley (’19) and Matt Delrosso (’17) closely following behind shooting a 74 with 3 over par. Two other notable members were Joe Pronio (’18) shooting an 83 with 12 over par and Jake Smithco (’17) shooting a 77 with 6 over par. The team clinched the title by 9 points with a total of 297. Five of the athletes were participating on the course and a few backups ready to compete in case of any spontaneous injuries or sicknesses. With this victory, they renewed the PA record, which was 300 before the Vikings came to conquer it and change it to 297.

The team is determined to keep up the legacy and win the PIAA state championship next year. They have a great JV team too that went undefeated all season. They have a great set of coaching staff, coaches Sean Mullen and Scott Dunlap. The JV team contends against opponents with junior leaders Jonathan Russell and Billy Garrison helping mentor the younger sophomores and freshmen to get better at the game. Billy Garrison agreed to the fact and said, “Jonathan and I tried to mentor the underclassmen golfers by instilling in them the core values that Central Catholic has instilled in us over the past 2 years. These values include honesty, respect, and sportsmanship.” As someone who played golf since freshmen year, Garrison knows how important these traits are to be a good golfer. Each successful golfer has these traits on and off the course. The JV athletes are already planning on moving up to the varsity level to help fulfill the goal of another championship. The golf season starts in August and goes throughout October. Tryouts are held are held in mid-August in a series of 4 intense rounds. The top 6 scorers are automatically placed on the varsity team, while the top 8 scorers, of freshmen and sophomores, are automatically placed on the JV team. Practices are held at the Bob O’Conner golf course located by CMU in Schenley park. The team is always welcoming new members that would like to keep the legacy of the team highly regarded.