by Greg Maher
Staff Writer
All championship teams start at the bottom, working hard until they reach the top. Sometimes they do not stay very long because as the seasons go by, the players come and go. The University of La Verne has had many fine golf teams over the years, arguably one of the best ever only two seasons ago when they went 6-1 on their season.
So they are no strangers to success.
This year the team looks to rebuild and plan for the future. “We started off with a lot of interest in the team this year but for a variety of reasons things changed. Our No. 1 player, [sophomore] Brian Pitcher, broke his wrist and another top recruit, Brandon Walker, is ineligible,” said Head Coach Rex Huigens. “We are shooting for next year but obviously not looking past this year, we are going to go out and have a good time and be as competitive as we can be and try to improve.
“[Freshman] Kevin Walker should be pretty good for us this year and a couple of guys from last year are playing pretty well. [Junior] Ryan Milligan has improved his game quite a bit. It isn’t where he wants it yet but I am encouraged about the improvements he has made. [Senior] Gabe Sanchez has improved as well. I don’t think we have improved enough to be competitive for the championship but I think we can finish fourth or fifth realistically.
“Claremont and Cal Lutheran look to be very good this year and Pomona might not be bad. We should be able to compete with Occidental, Caltech, Whittier and possibly Redlands,” said Huigens.
Coaching the golf team for 24 years, Huigens feels it may have taken a little bit of a backseat to football with which he was involved for 25 years as an assistant and head coach.
“I try to do what I can but I think in spring when I have golf practice I might have a football recruit the same day or something like that and golf hasn’t received as much attention from me as it should.
“Now this year, from a recruiting standpoint, I am not going to recruit 20 guys. I’m going to zero in on eight or nine I think we have a good chance of getting and are good players. I have been coaching golf for a long time and have a lot of fun with it and I am confident the future is going to be bright for us in golf and I certainly hope it works out to be that way,” said Huigens.
“We have a great group of guys and we play some excellent courses so we will have a lot of fun this year. With Pitcher, Milligan, Walker and recruits we will come back strong next year,” he said.
The Leopards have had a couple of scheduled matches rained out already but look forward to the upcoming week when they travel to play non-conference Cal Baptist on Tuesday at Canyon Crest Country Club.
The La Verne golf team will host Caltech the following day, Feb. 28, in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match at Sierra La Verne Country Club, starting at 1 p.m.
