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It’s been a long preseason for the Woodstock Academy girls’ golf team.
It will be the team that will be the last to make its debut this spring season as the Centaurs don’t play until Wednesday when they travel to the Old Lyme Country Club to play E. Lyme.
But that is fine with veteran coach Earl Semmelrock who has taken advantage of the extra time and nice weather to fine tune what could be a pretty good Centaurs team.
The Centaurs are fortunate this year --- they spend a couple of weeks hitting balls on the Woodstock Common or behind the gym on South Campus. They got two solid weeks of practice with their varsity course (Quinnatisset) open.
The Centaurs have four seniors, Kaily LaChapelle, Ciara MacKinnon, Alex Vaida and Maria Santucci to rely upon this season.
LaChapelle said she and her classmates didn’t let the spring, summer and fall of 2020 go to waste. They did get out on the courses together and even chipped in their backyards to hone their skills.
The four seniors are a key reason why Semmelrock returned for his 15th season at the helm.
LaChapelle finished with a 13-2 record and a 51.2 stroke average in 2019, second on the team to Linda St. Laurent (49.2) who was a senior.
Santucci, Vaida and MacKinnon all posted winning records as well in 2019 and had stroke averages in the mid-50s.
They may also get some help from junior transfer Mia Dang from Massachusetts.
“She played on the boys’ team at St. Peter-Marian in Worcester and has a lot of experience playing competitive golf so we’re excited to see what she can do on the course,” Semmelrock said.
Fellow juniors Jillian Marcotte and Sadie Susi and sophomore Maya Orbegozo will comprise the remainder of the varsity unit.
The schedule will be pretty repetitive with the Centaurs having only two out-of-conference matches with Suffield and four each against ECC opponents, E. Lyme, NFA and Bacon Academy.
“Each division has the top 15 qualifiers and ties so there is an opportunity for five more teams to make the state playoffs and our goal is going to be to get back there,” Semmelrock said. The Centaurs qualified for the girls’ state championship tournament for a first time ever in 2019.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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