Boys’ Golf Preview: With new coach, La Cañada shoots for more league dominance
Despite a constant turnover with coaches the last couple of seasons, it hasn’t deterred the La Cañada High boys’ golf team from mounting success on the course.
The Spartans have continued to dominate the Rio Hondo League and qualify for the postseason.
Derrick Williams will be La Cañada’s fourth coach in the last three seasons. Williams will look to guide the Spartans to their 13th consecutive league championship and a return trip to the CIF Southern Section postseason in May.
Williams, who is also the Glendale Community College women’s coach, an assistant professional at Valencia Country Club in the Santa Clarita Valley and instructor at Scholl Canyon Golf Course in Glendale, was hired in January and will inherit a La Cañada squad that finished third in the CIF Southern Section Northern Team Divisional. He replaces Nick Del Pozo, the 2016 All-Area Boys’ Golf Coach of the Year.
“They’ve had a lot of great players come through here for a long time and they’ve built a winning tradition,” said Williams, who played two seasons at Cleveland State University before transferring to Michigan State. “Going forward, I want to help build on that tradition and I have a background at helping people out.
“It’s going to be exciting to be around and see the players achieve good things. We have 13 players who have been out there practicing and we have a lot of potential. The goals are to win league and go all the way to the state playoffs.”
Last season marked the first time since 2003 that La Cañada didn’t have an individual league champion. There might be a couple of candidates on board in the Spartans’ quest to again reign individually.
La Cañada will return sophomore Andrew Ricci and senior Eduardo Torres. They will be joined by juniors Max Kinsel, Dylan Choi and Jason Del Fierro.
Ricci was bestowed with All-Area recognition last season after he registered a third-place finish at the league’s individual tournament. He notched an average of 78 and qualified for the CIF Southern Section Individual Tournament.
Since taking over at St. Francis in 2013, coach Kyle Ostrom has continued to elevate the Golden Knights in the Mission League.
It’s certainly not easy traditional powers such as Loyola and Harvard-Westlake, yet Ostrom has seen St. Francis hold its own and consistently qualify for the playoffs.
Ostrom, a former All-Area Boys’ Golf Coach of the Year, will look to guide the Golden Knights to another top-four finish in arguably one of the most difficult leagues in the state and a return trip to the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
“We expect to be right there in league and we think we have a shot at getting back to CIF,” said Ostrom, whose team took fourth in league and eighth in the CIF Southern Section Central Team Divisional. “You always know going in, the Mission League will be hard and a lot of the teams have continued to improve.
“It will be a little bit of a rebuilding year, but I think we’ll be fine. We’ll try to rotate some of the players in the lineup. It will be about who will be able to take that next step along the way.”
St. Francis saw Tommy Altmayer, the reigning All-Area Boys’ Golfer of the Year, graduate. Altmayer took ninth in the league’s individual tournament and was the only area player to reach the CIF Southern Section Individual Golf Finals and Southern California Golf Assn. Regional Qualifying Tournament in 2016.
Still, the Golden Knights are hardly void of talent.
St. Francis will return seniors Stian Lintvedt, Aidan Tracey and David Emeron and will bring in freshman Henry Fitzhugh.
“Stian has had a lot of success,” Ostrom said. “I look for him to keep improving and I’m very optimistic that he’ll be even better this year.”
Coach Bob Loughrie will begin his 31st season at Flintridge Prep.
The Rebels tied for second place with Buckley in the Prep League behind rival Pasadena Poly last season. The Rebels saw Jonah Sacks earn an All-Area nod after winning a second straight league individual championship before graduating.
“We’ll have a lot of options throughout the lineup because we’ll have plenty of depth,” Loughrie said. “We’ll have a very good nucleus and I’m optimistic we can make a run at the league championship.
“We’ve got right around 18 matches this year. You can only control what you can do.”
Among those expected to compete for spots in the lineup are seniors Cameron Wu, Matthew Choi, Justin Yu and Brendan Barton and sophomores Ben Sacks, Preston Ho and Kailyn Chiu.
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Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
