There were a lot of wide eyes on the faces of the South Aiken boys' golf team last month during the T-Breds' first tournament of the spring.
For these young T-Breds, it was their first action in tournament play since their county championships in middle school - and playing against dozens of varsity high school teams is a lot different than teeing it up against a much smaller field of local players who had either the same amount of experience as them or less.
Needless to say, that first tournament went about as well as expected for head coach Tommy DeGennaro and his team.
"They're looking out there, the biggest tournament they'd ever played in was, like, five teams, 20 players, and we're out there, 30 teams, 120 players," DeGennaro said. "But over the course of the season, they've gotten better. They've worked hard. Each week, you see improvement. ... If we have numbers like that on the front nine on Monday, we're going to be in good position. They're working real hard, and they've persevered all year long."
Monday is the Region 4-AAAA championship tournament at The Aiken Golf Club, and DeGennaro is hoping to see that continued improvement carry on into the biggest stretch of the season.
It's an entirely new lineup of T-Breds after the departure of last year's big, successful senior class. Some of the current players had opportunities to play in some matches last year, but those seniors - including Division I signees Cameron Biddle and Miles Eubanks - were multi-year mainstays in all of the big tournaments.
Four sophomores and three freshmen were in the lineup for Tuesday's match against Aiken High, and DeGennaro was encouraged by some of the scores they posted on the front nine - a 36 from Collin Orander, a 40 from Andrew Bowie and a 42 from Reid Hinton are the kind of scores that can put them in a good spot at region, and they're good building blocks heading into next week's Southern Cross.
One of the key points DeGennaro is trying to drive home to his young players is to let go of the bad shot, though he'll quickly admit his seniors struggled with that at times last year. A big number on a hole has to remain on that hole - it can't be played again, so why let it affect the next three or four by still letting it linger? He's seen them get better at moving on to the next shot, which has led to their scores gradually coming down throughout the season.
"It makes me amazed that they're listening," he said with a laugh. "No, it's good. A lot of these guys have their own coaches. They have their own swing coaches. They get lessons with people at the other clubs. Just to see that they're listening and working on those things that they need - now, I wish everybody would. I still have a couple with a bit of the hard-headedness. Slowly but surely, they're getting there. We'll see. I feel good about Monday. I feel better about Monday now than I did, say, about a month ago, just seeing the guys come out and do pretty well on this course today."
South Aiken has one last tune-up before region when defending Class AAAA champion North Augusta pays a visit Thursday at Woodside Country Club, and then comes the closing sprint - Region 4-AAAA, Southern Cross, then potentially the Class AAAA Upper State qualifier and state championship tournament.
That's a lot to place in front of such a young team, but DeGennaro is counting on the improvement they've shown while being thrown into the deep end all season to continue guiding them on the right track.
