High School Golf Preview: North Division
The North Division features two top contenders in Burrillville and Cumberland.
Both teams should be contenders for the playoffs and perhaps even a State Championship.
Burrillville
The Broncos are looking to continue the incredible run that they have been on over the last couple of years.
Prior to the pandemic, Burrillville was 27-1in the previous two seasons, including a 14-0 season in 2019.
The Broncos will be led by Senior Jake Trimble and Cam DeSante.
“I would say that we are in a semi rebuild this year, we have two great players in Jake and Cam but after that we really need some new players to step up in a big way in order to compete for the division again. It’s a shame we didn’t play last year because the team had six seniors on it with two great players. Now we are very limited after our top two players,” said new Head Coach Craig Boucher.
Trimble won the 2020 Junior Amateur first flight title at Alpine Country Club.
During he medal play round, he posted a 78 to advance to match play.
Trimble now looks to help the Broncos capture a State Title.
Cumberland
The last time high school golf was played, the Clippers went 11-3 on the season and finished second in the division.
Cumberland will be looking to build off that and give the Broncos a run for their money.
A Rebuild in Lincoln
The Lions went 9-5 in the 2019 season and were competitive against the top teams.
However, the 2021 season is going to be a rebuild, according to Head Coach Nick Maresca.
“We are in a rebuilding year. Young team, lot of potential in freshman Beckett Cournoyer and looking for Ellie Maziarz, Kylie Bridges, Jack Correia, Lindsey Fleming, Tyler Dickinson and Jack Lawson to be integral parts of the rebuild,” Maresca told GolfNewsRI.
Best of the Rest
Mount St. Charles also went 9-5 in this division back in 2019, however, their roster on RIIL from that year consists of only two players. No new roster has been published to this point.
“Mount was in a unique position where they were trying to get their travel team hockey players to be able to play on their high school golf team, I’m not sure where that wound up. If those kids are able to play I would imagine they would have some really good players coming on to the team this year. I believe they do have a team, just not sure of the coach yet, ” said Boucher.
Smithfield, Ponaganset and North Smithfield will be looking to bounce back from losing seasons in 2019.
North Smithfield has no seniors on the roster, according to RIIL, but they have five juniors.
The five juniors include Noah Dagesse, Adam Dubois, Gavin Maratea, Nicholas Marseglia and Zachary Salinaro.
The rest of the roster is made up of three freshman, including Aidan Bienvenue, Nicholas Carufel and Joshua Neves.
Woonsocket is the other team in the division, but as of a couple of weeks ago, they were seeking students to sign up for the team.