Boys golf begins practice for spring season

Senior+Victor+Shin+practices+his+shot+at+golf+practice+after+school.+The+team+played+in+multiple+tournaments+at+the+start+of+their+season.

Alex Wang

Senior Victor Shin practices his shot at golf practice after school. The team played in multiple tournaments at the start of their season.

by Alex Wang, Opinion Editor

The boys golf team started off its season with practices at local golf courses and a few matches and tournaments, including the Cowboy Classic and Pahrump Invitational.

This year’s team consists of a large number of freshman, as many of last year’s players were seniors and graduated.

“The team’s strong, led by three seniors, Daulet, Vic and Jin,” assistant coach Don Allio said. “We also have a really strong freshman group – a really strong lower class and really strong upper class.”

Sophomore golfer Jaimin Bhagat echoed Allio’s thoughts.

“[The team] looks good. We lost some seniors, but the freshman will make up for it,” Jaimin said.

Senior Daulet Tuleubayev, who committed this year to play golf at Stanford University, has high expectations for both the team and himself.

“I think that if we have a good day and play well, we can easily win [the State Championship],” Daulet said. “Individually, I definitely want to put a lot more focus on high school fold than I did last year. My personal goal is to set the record scoring average in these high school tournaments.”

Captain Victor Shin (12) is looking forward to working with the younger players.

“I’m really looking forward to building on the new players, especially the new plethora of freshman that we have,” Victor said. “As captain, I’m really looking forward to being a good role model, teaching some of the JV guys and even some of the varsity guys some tips around the course [and] just what it means to be a good golfer [and] a good teammate.”

Victor also hopes to prepare these players to lead the team in the future.

“I’m trying to build the freshman as much as i can because we have a lot of them this year,” Victor said. “It’s really key that we give them a good sense of what the Harker golf program is so that when they grow up and become juniors and seniors, they can really bring the Harker golf program to brand new heights.”