GolfNewsRI

The West Division is absolutely loaded with three teams that could win the entire thing. 

In 2019, Moses Brown and Wheeler tied for the division, with Wheeler going on to win the State Championship. 

In third was La Salle, who this year got better with the addition of freshman Max Jackson. 

Wheeler

Led by Allison Paik, Wheeler won the Challenge Cup by one stroke, the RI Invitational by one stroke and the State Championship in 2019. 

They were hoping for a repeat performance last year, but Covid got in the way. 

Paik has since graduated and now plays at the University of Columbia. 

“Last year, we were stacked but didn’t have a season because of Covid, this year will be kind of a rebuilding year,” said Head Coach Shane Drury. 

This season, Wheeler will be led by Ben Sapovitz, Eric Tang and Mitchell LaCamera. 

Drury adds, “We are definitely looking forward defending our titles from 2019.”

Moses Brown

The Quakers have won four of the last six State Championships and this year, they return a strong squad poised to add to the trophy case. 

“Obviously, my number one player is Harry Dessel who plays out of Rhode Island Country Club, was named All-State last year. Kylie Eaton is a good player, she is playing in a lot of tournaments. I think she is gonna give people a run for the state championship, she is playing terrific,” said Head Coach Larry Tremblay. 

Eaton has won back-to-back Kirkbrae Club Championships and made it to the semi-finals of the Women’s State Amateur last summer. 

Dessel made it to the final of the Rhode Island Junior Amateur last summer, losing to John Baldwin. 

“I’d be very surprised if he didn’t make all-state next year,” Tremblay adds. 

As for the rest of the Moses Brown lineup…

“Ben d’Entremont he is number three. After that we got Charlie Costa who is a senior, Connor McNulty who is a senior and the sixth guy will be DJ Plant out of Wannamoisett and then a handful of newcomers.”

La Salle

The Rams went 8-4 in 2019, but this year will be expecting to compete for a title due to an infusion of talent from the freshman class. 

“I think La Salle will have a good team, he has a few freshman that are rather good so they are going to be tough,” said Tremblay about his division rival. 

The most notable of those freshmen is Max Jackson. 

You may remember Jackson from the 2018 Junior Championship at Metacomet when he chipped in for birdie twice  on the back nine to beat Potowomut’s Jack Georgeu 2&1 in the first round. 

Jackson was just 12 years old at the time. 

Jackson would lose in the next round to Ted Murphy, but, he stole the show in the first round. 

Best of the Rest 

The rest of the division consists of Johnston, North Providence, Scituate and Shea. 

Johnston went 6-6 in the 2019 season and will look to build on that. 

North Providence will look to bounce back from a losing season in 2019 as they went 4-8. 

The Cougars will be led by seniors Bryce DePalma and Alexander Nicolo. 

Scituate and Shea went 2-10 and 0-12 respectively in 2019. 

The Spartans will be led by seniors Abigail Pagnozzi and Olivia Provonsil.