Rye Neck wasn't even sure it was going to be able to field a golf team this spring. The Panthers graduated eight seniors a year ago and had only two starters returning.
It wasn't until tryouts began that Rye Neck Coach Mark Canno began to feel comfortable about having enough players to compete. And after a few practices, Canno is looking forward to the start of the season
"This is going to be a fun season. We have a pretty good team," Canno said. "We have a good mix of players, but we're a small school and we're never going to have the depth as a Rye or a Scarsdale. But we got 15 or 16 kids out to tryouts, and a lot of them are new to the sport and hopefully some of them will take to it."
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Last year, the Panthers had a solid season as the team finished 7-8, having struggled to beat some of the top teams in the section.
Even though Rye Neck graduated a majority of its golfers, there is still plenty of talent. The Panthers will be a much younger team as two of their top golfers are freshmen – twins Michael and Whitney Spiegel. Another golfer Canno is high on is eighth-grader Luke Murphy.
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"This year it's going to be more of a maturation process," Canno said. "We're probably going to struggle a little bit. A lot of our kids play with their families and it takes time to get used to playing in competitive matches."
Sophomore Zubyr Fentas will be the team's No. 2 golfer, while senior captain Greg Petrillo and junior captain Jake Stone will be looked upon to provide leadership to the young team.
The Panthers will also be adding two new seniors to the team – Shane O'Shea and Greg Wurtzberger. O'Shea was the Panthers' starting quarterback this past season, and while Canno said that the senior has a good long ball, he hopes to have time to work on his short game.
"Since we lost so many seniors last year, we're looking to add new players," Canno said. "We have a couple of guys that will definitely start, but after that we are going to be rotating; they're all going to get plenty of playing time. And they need that practice time. Once the season starts, you play three or four matches a week, you don't have time to practice chipping and the 50-foot putts, the real tough shots."
As competitive as the team expects to be, the Panthers promise not to take it too seriously.
"These guys care about the school and they want to win," Canno said. "But a lot of these guys use it to hang out with their friends and play on these courses. You want to win as many matches as you can, but as long as they improve and learn the proper etiquette, that's all you can ask for."
