Gilroy High boys golf team gets unexpected CCS at-large bid
GILROY – The Mustang linkers were a long shot for an at-large berth into the CCS Boys Golf Championship since they finished in fourth place in the T-CAL standings behind league champ Palma and runner-up Hollister as well as third-place Salinas.
With the top two teams automatically qualifying and Salinas vying for an at-large bid, Mustangs’ head coach Eric Kuwada thought that the selection committee would not take two more T-CAL teams – leaving Gilroy one short.
But the good news rolled in this week – notifying Kuwada that his bunch got the No. 5 seed with Salinas going as the No. 4 seed. So four T-CAL teams will be competing in this year’s section championship on Monday.
In addition, seniors Ale Rodriguez (who shot a 77 at league finals) and Chad Brownfield (who shot a 78 at league finals) also qualified as individuals since the qualifying score was set at 78 or lower.
“It’s puts a happy spin to the bittersweet loss we had at league finals,” said Kuwada, whose squad finished in third at Tuesday’s T-CAL Finals at Quail Lodge in Monterey.
“All of the (at-large bid) teams were close and, in the back of my mind, I thought maybe we would have a chance. With the other five teams left to choose from, we were the stronger of them.”
The tough tournament scheduling done by Kuwada – including the Monterey Bay Invitational at Salinas CC – helped out his garlic golfers in the end.
“I thought maybe we would lose standing because we played poorly at the last two tournaments,” Kuwada said. “One contributing factor was that Chad (Brownfield) was on a college trip during spring break and we didn’t have him to play. So we kept higher scores than normal.”
