GCC men’s golf preview: Things will look vastly different for Vaqueros
In sending three players to the Southern California Regionals last season, the Glendale Community College men’s golf team’s outlook for the 2016 season appeared rather promising.
Sophomore Tavit Garbarian and freshmen Robert Eyvazzadeh and Stephan Peterson advanced to the postseason at Olivas Links Golf Course in Ventura in 2015.
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But, since then, Garbarian transferred to Cal State Northridge, while Eyvazzadeh and Peterson left Glendale to pursue other interests.
It’s left Glendale Coach Todd Tyni scrambling to devise a lineup for this season, which begins Monday with a Western State Conference match at Valencia Country Club.
“If you asked me how I felt after last season going into this season, I would have told you I’m excited about where we are going,” said Tyni, who took over the program in 2014. “Things then fell apart a bit with those departures.
“It’s great to see Tavit go on to play Division I golf. Robert and Steven made their decisions to move on and I don’t begrudge them for what they have chosen. So, I’ve had to do some reevaluating of things with the players we have here. We’ll work with them and try to make them better players.”
The Vaqueros finished fourth in conference last season. College of the Canyons won the conference and state championship. Santa Barbara and Ventura finished second and third, respectively, in conference.
“We’re playing in what’s always a tough conference,” Tyni said. “COC will be strong again and Santa Barbara and Ventura should both be good.”
Glendale won’t be completely bereft of talent while looking to climb in conference. The Vaqueros bring back sophomores Andrew Gowanlock, Andrew Salinas and Nick Diaz.
Tyni will seek to find at least two freshmen to fill out the lineup. Among the possibilities are Ryan Diddle, Mike Diaz, Jason Apodaca, Raymond Chi and Andreas Akiki.
“Right now, it’s such an unknown for our team,” Tyni said. “I don’t know where we’ll wind up [in conference]
“Still, we’re excited. We have guys who want to be here and maybe be able to transfer and play at the next level. We’ll keep our heads up and see how things go. One of the goals is for them to have great attitudes and see their improvement from week to week.”
Glendale will participate in nine conference matches. It will host an event at 10 a.m. April 11 at Oakmont Country Club.
The conference finals will be held April 25 at Rio Bravo Country Club in Bakersfield and the Southern California Regionals will take place at Bear Creek Golf Course near Murrieta on May 9. The state tournament will be held May 15-16 at Desert Country Club near Palm Springs.
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Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
