Season Preview: Fort Lee Girls Golf, No Boys Team This Year

With each new season, there are typically a number of changes that a coach and a team must go through. It could be as routine as the graduation of a senior or as standard as a new player adjusting to a new team.

But then again, there are more drastic changes that can take place as well, and that is something the Fort Lee golf program will experience this year.

One of the first changes to coach Bob Ciccone’s team this season is actually a subtraction of the boys team. With a small turnout of only four golfers, two of whom did not have their own clubs, the decision was made to not carry a boys team this spring season.

“The [boys numbers] have been going down in recent years,” the seven-year coach said. “When I first started you had all boys and one girl.”

Now, the ratio has flipped to the point that Fort Lee has six female golfers and not a single boy competing this season.

Another change has the program joining an all-girls league rather than having the female golfers competing against the boys like last year.

That change has much of the team, including coach Ciccone, curious as to how this year will play out.

“There is a lot of uncertainty because it is the first year of a girls program,” he said. “I really don’t know the girls league that much so [the girls and I] are going to be learning together.”

Fort Lee does return a number of girls from last year’s team, including senior Sarah Wi who finished 13^th year in the county tournament and won the girls league title.

“I can see working with her and talking with her a lot this year, that [Sarah] has gotten much better,” Ciccone said. “We are hoping that she leads us.”

Wi will be joined again by teammates Alice Ji and Monica Hong who were the third and fourth golfers for Fort Lee a year ago.

“All three girls have played against the boys,” coach Ciccone said. “This year playing against the girls…you’re going to be on an even keel, and you are going to have a better chance.”

Some of the girls are also taking the same approach.

“We are going to win and do really good this year because we don’t have to face guys,” Alice Ji said.

But there is also a new wrinkle for the girls as they now will be competing in stroke play as opposed to match play.

For those unfamiliar with the change, that now means if a golfer lost a hole 9-6 this year, they would be down by three shots. That is different from last year when the team would only be behind by one hole if match play rules were still in effect.

All six Lady Bridgemen will compete in the majority of the events this year with the top four scores counting toward the team total.

In order to prepare for the season, the golf team had to make a few adjustments to make sure that even the girls could compete this year.

With the extreme rise in prices for transportation, trips to the driving range and rounds on the course, coach Ciccone worked with Athletic Director Pat Ambrosio to keep the program alive with cost-saving measures.   

“We purchased some extra netting that they can drive into, some chipping matting they can use inside in the small gym, some putting greens and some golf whiffle balls,” Ambrosio said. “You simulate the outside game inside and it doesn’t cost you $250 that it costs to go [to the driving range].”

The Lady Bridgemen have been utilizing these new tools during the lead up to the season opener and have even been out to the driving range and golf course four times each so far.

The next time out will count, when they begin the season on Monday at 4 p.m. against the Passaic County Technical Institute at the North Jersey Country Club.