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Boys’ Golf Preview: Something new added to each team

Burroughs High’s Louis D'Aquila hits a fairway shot during a recent practice round at De Bell Golf Club.

Burroughs High’s Louis D’Aquila hits a fairway shot during a recent practice round at De Bell Golf Club.

(Tim Berger / Burbank Leader)
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Between all of the recent late-winter storms, all three local teams have scrambled to find practice time in preparation for the upcoming season.

Burroughs High, Burbank and Providence’s goals include contending their leagues and advancing to the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Burroughs and Burbank qualified for the playoffs last season. Providence is the last area squad to capture a league championship after the Pioneers split the Liberty League title in 2013.

As the teams, who use De Bell Golf Club as their home course, lost players to graduation, all three coaches will look to restructure their lineups while attempting to meet or exceed their goals.

BURROUGHS

The Indians achieved the most success last season, finishing second in the Pacific League behind powerhouse Arcadia and 14th in the 21-team CIF Southern Section Northern Team Divisional at Soule Park Golf Club in Ojai.

Things will look considerably different throughout the lineup for the Indians, who saw several players graduate.

However, Burroughs will return senior Louis D’Aquila, who qualified for the CIF Southern Section Northern Individual at Las Posas Country Club in Camarillo after placing fourth in league. The Loyola Marymount University-bound D’Aquila will be counted on to stabilize Burroughs.

“Louis has been working hard and we hope to get him back to the individual tournament,” Indians Coach Greg Everhart said. “He’s certainly got the potential to get back there.”

In addition to D’Aquila, Burroughs will have a lineup that includes junior Aaron Cohen and sophomores Jake Panikowski and Dylan Roy.

“We lost five seniors, so you instantly become a very young team,” said Everhart, the reigning All-Area Girls’ Coach of the Year. “We don’t have a lot of players with varsity experience.

“We need to fill a spot or two in the lineup and we’ll look at some of the younger players. Our goal will be to take second in league. Arcadia will still have a very good team and most of the rest of the teams in league will be fairly young.”

BURBANK

After missing the playoffs in 2015, Burbank turned things around by finishing fourth in the Pacific League and reaching the CIF Southern Section Northern Team Divisional last season. The Bulldogs capped their season by finishing 17th at the event.

There will be a changing of the guard at the top for Burbank, as longtime coach Frank Childress will turn the responsibilities over to Doug Grimshaw. Childress will still oversee the team while looking to help Grimshaw make a smooth transition.

“Frank is planning to retire in the next couple of years and I’ve learned a lot from him,” said Grimshaw, who served as the junior varsity coach the past eight seasons. “It will be exciting to take over the program and I’ve been able to work with a lot of the players previously, so I’m already familiar with them

“We’ll likely have a young team, so we’ll look for some of the guys to step it up.”

Burbank’s lineup will feature senior Cole Pendarvis, juniors Jason Snow and Dennis McCarthy, sophomore Louis Calzado and freshman Niko Coccio.

PROVIDENCE

Providence will compete in the Liberty League with Milken Community, Santa Monica Pacifica and Pasadena Armenian General Benevolent Union.

The Pioneers will return several players, leaving veteran coach Carl Light optimistic.

“I think we can be strong at the top of the lineup and we’ll look to get the others in the mix for the team to have success,” Light said. “We’ll have to see how much improvement they’ve made since the end of last season.

“We’ll look to see if we can get some players to shoot 45 or less.”

Providence will bring back seniors Paolo Largoza and Michael House. They will be joined by senior Emma Finney and sophomore Ruby Hong.

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Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com

Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich

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