GolfNewsRI

GolfNewsRI’s 2024 High School Golf previews begin in the North Division. 

The North Division might be the most competitive division in all of Rhode Island High School Golf. 

“Any team in the north division can come up and be the number one division,” said Mount Head Coach Rick Labreche. 

Last season, Mount was the only team from the division to make it to the State Championship Tournament. 

“Seems like the North Division has not been as strong as in the past, but we are getting back to where it used to be for sure,” said Lincoln Head Coach Nick Maresca.

This year, Smithfield, North Smithfield and Lincoln are all expecting to be contenders, while Burrillville and Cumberland are looking to steal the show. 

NORTH DIVISION 

Mount St. Charles

The giant over-arching story with Mount is that this will be their last season in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League as they will move on to the NEPASC. 

This has mostly been talked bout in regards to the hockey team, rightfully so, but it affects the golf team as well. 

It’s going to be a change, going to be an adjustment. We are going to a league where wins and losses do count and records do count,” said Lebreche. 

The RIIL standings are based on scoring average, not team records. 

The Mounties will look to close out the RIIL era strong and get back to the State Championship this season. 

“I think we are going to have a pretty competitive club again this year,” said Labreche. 

Mount is returning one player from last year’s top six and that is team captain Bryce Garthee.  

Garthee finished 16th in the state in scoring average last season with an average score of 38.6. 

The Mounties will also look for contributions from freshmen Makenna Moylan, Nick Marsh and Arabella Giroux. 

Lincoln

Last year around this time, Lincoln Head Coach Nick Maresca told GolfNewsRI that he thought his squad was a bout a year away from contending. 

Well, here we are. 

“We are certainly looking to contend in the division this year. I feel confident about team, we have a lot of experience on the roster,” said Maresca. 

The Lions will be led by seniors Jack Lawson  and Marco Vuono and junior Adamo Alfieri. All three of whom will be captains this year. 

Last season, Lawson finished 115th in the state in stroke average at 46.2, while Vuono finished 176th at 51. 

Lincoln will also seek a big contribution from sophomore Josh Bergeron, who just edged out Lawson in stroke average last season. 

For Maresca, this is his second season back with the Lions after leaving the program for one season while he took the Glocester Head Pro job. 

Since then, he has moved the program from Kirkbrae to Lincoln, where he is in his second season as Head Pro.

“We talk about course management, short game, those are all key aspects of what they need to do to play better. It’s not just hitting driver all the time. We don’t play a lot of long golf courses,” said Maresca. 

Lincoln is poised to be a contender in the North Division this season. 

Smithfield

The Smithfield Sentinels enter the 2024 season after a bit of a rebuilding year in 2023. 

In 2023, Smithfield 13th in the state in scoring average and did not make it to the State Championship tournament. 

“We look forward to this upcoming season expecting to see continued improvement by a group of juniors who all have two years of high school experience,” said Head Coach Jim Parente. 

Smithfield will be led by Jack Hannigan, who made it to the State Championship last year as an individual. 

Hannigan finished 64th in scoring average in the state at 43.2. 

Other juniors who are expected to play big roles include Tony Stockwell, Matthew Bradley, Jackson Villari, Tom Dexter and Noah Allard. 

One player to watch is sophomore Christian Snowman. 

“ He showed potential as a freshman last year and is expected to be a big part of the team’s success this year,” added Parente. 

Snowman carded an average score of 47 last season as a freshman, ranking him 120th in the state. 

Parente also notes that nine freshmen signed up to tryout for the team. 

Like many teams, due to weather, practices have just started in full this week. 

North Smithfield

North Smithfield is returning a veteran group of players this season in hopes of getting back to the State Championship Tournament. 

The Northmen are returning ten of 12 players from last year’s team, which did not have any seniors.

North Smithfield will be led by Josh Neves, Anthony Paiva, Cooper Carlson and Nick Carufel. 

“They are each capable of shooting the lowest each match and each player should turn in solid scores each match,” said Head Coach John Galoski. 

Neves finished 43rd in scoring average last season, posting an average score of 41. 

Paiva carded an average score of 43.6 last season, which was good enough for 72nd best in the state. 

Carlson was ranked 127th in the state and Carufel was ranked 173rd. 

North Smithfield’s roster has seven sophomores on it, all looking to find their way into matches this season. 

“Early in the season it looks like Declan St. Vincent is leading that group and has made a big jump from last year in his game.  Declan could surprise some people this year with the gained knowledge of away courses and comfort level at home matches,” said Galoski. 

As a freshman, St. Vincent finished 139th in the state in stroke average, with a score of 47.8. 

Other sophomores to look out for are Michael Tremblay, Nathan McAssey, Jack Narodowy, Owen O’Reilly, Andrew Norwood and Zach Berghammer. 

North Smithfield is poised to get back to the top of the division. 

Galoski added, “I’m excited for division play to start.  The division is always competitive.  The standings seem to shuffle themselves every year and it’s exciting to compete in close matches and see the kids play their best.”

Best of the Rest

Burrilliville – The Broncos finished in 20th last season in teams scoring average with the squad posting an average score of 179.8 to miss the State Championship Tournament.

The Broncos will be led this season by junior Dylan Franklin, who finished 82nd in scoring average last season as a sophomore to lead the team. 

Sophomore Rodney Frenetic will look to take another step forward after posting an average score of 45 last season as a freshman. 

Another sophomore, Ethan Withington will look to build on his freshman season. 

Cumberland – The Clippers finished 17th in stroke average last season with a team score of 174. 5 to miss the State Championship Tournament. 

Last season, Sam Medici led the Clippers as a sophomore in stroke average, carding an average score of 43, good enough for 70th in the state. 

Senior Marcus Ziniti finished just inside the top 100 last year (as a junior) in stroke average posting an average score of 45. 

St. Rays – St. Rays has two of the top players in the state as it relates to scoring average in Nick Emery and Zach Taraian. 

Emery ranked 15th and Taraian finished 22nd, but were just a stroke apart.

Both should be contenders for the individual state title, while the team continues to build. 

Last season was their first as a golf team, this season there are 15 players on the roster. 

The Saints continue to be a great story. 

Ponaganset – Ponaganset is the other team in the division and they will look for big years from Alex Wildgoose and Brendon Moreau. 

They finished 55th and 78th respectively in scoring average last season. 

As a team, Ponaganset finished 18th in scoring average, just two shots back of division rival Cumberland and one shot ahead of North Smithfield. Two ahead of Burrillville. 

The division is really up for grabs.