The Riverside Brookfield High School girls golf team earned second place in the Metro Suburban Conference (MSC) on September 18. Senior Mayan Covarrubias was awarded MSC MVP after taking home the conference’s individual title at St. Andrew Golf Course in West Chicago.
Lots of hard work has led to long awaited success coming into fruition. The team was awarded second place just two strokes behind first, a bittersweet but encouraging sign for the rest of the season.
“We wanted first pretty badly. We lost by two strokes, so it was really close, but it was definitely good to see where we’ve come from previous years where we weren’t really ranked that high,” Covarrubias said.
Covarrubias won conference MVP after shooting a 73 on 18 holes. The two-time state participant is once again looking to qualify for state; however, she tries not to let all the accolades get to her head before the job is done.
“I don’t want to let my head get too big, but it’s nice seeing all my hard work is paying off,” Covarrubias said. “My goal is to move through regionals and sectionals to qualify for state again, hopefully with somebody else from our team.”
The team has been growing for the past five years since head coach Doug Schultz took over in the 2018 season. The future predicts more growth, and the program is only on the rise.
“The year before I started there were five golfers. So the first challenge was to build the program to be a program where girls want to come and play golf, [and] where they know they can learn golf,” Schultz said. “The team has grown. We have 23 golfers in the program. I’d like to keep that number there, if not bigger next year. I’m looking to continue to grow. So I’m continuing to make sure it’s an open door policy where girls can come and learn the game of golf.”
Throughout the whole season, the team has been able to overcome challenges and difficult losses. Even when they lose by just a couple strokes, the team always keeps their head up.
“It’s hard to get over some tough losses. We’ve lost by only a couple strokes in some of our matches, but I feel like getting over those is good to come by,” Covarrubias said.
This will be the second consecutive year the team earned second in conference. Last year, Covarrubias got second individually, and current sophomore Lucia Vazzana got eighth. Winning the conference will be one of the team’s goals next year.
“Last year we got second place as well, but I think we played better this year. Overall, everyone got better scores,” junior Taryn Schultz said. “We’ve been practicing a lot and really focusing on doing better this year than previous years. I’m looking forward to maybe getting first in conference next year.”
The easygoing atmosphere of the team is one of their keys to success. It’s easier to succeed in golf when you flow with the match and stay relaxed, one of their key points.
“We don’t put a lot of pressure on ourselves. When we play we just go out there and have some fun, so it feels easier,” Covarrubias said.
