Story By Alex Rodriguez, Sports Editor
Aquinas Men’s Golf team has recently begun their season at the Lourdes invitational. With this season opening match up, Aquinas landed 4th overall, developing a total team score of 301. Being only 5 strokes short of first place, this was a strong opening for this team as they have been working under a new coach of the name, John Konya. This is Konya’s first time coaching a college level team, when previously he was working as a PGA Golf Professional. After placing 5th within the WHAC last year, Aquinas Men’s Golf team has started this year with a better start than where they ended last year.
With a new coach, there is definitely a sense of a new mentality within this team. Coach Konya hasn’t gotten to start new traditions so much yet, however, he has been introducing some new techniques. Senior Dominic Luciani talks about how this year Coach has been stressing the short game a lot more! Continuing he talks on how Konya has been able to communicate well, quickly incorporate his new style of coaching and how impressive the start has been for Konya. Along with this Luciani mentions how Konya has been very adaptable with working hand and hand with the players listening and taking some input from them.
With all of these changes it can be tough, however, the golf team still holds high expectations and goals for themselves this season. The team has set goals to be able to not only compete for the conference championship, but also getting the opportunity to compete for the national championship. Luciani says, “Week by week we are trying to bring home hardware and consistently improve.” There is no doubt that this team under new coaching has some excitement and willingness to succeed. The team has set the bar high in hopes that they will not only hit it but fly over it! They are constantly improving through tough practices and hard fought competitions day by day. Along with team goals, Luciani has some high standard for his personal play at which he states, “As far as personal goals, it isn’t much different. I want to win and each tournament brings about a new opportunity.”
This season for the Aquinas Men’s Golf team will be an exciting one to see how they will compete in hopes to reach their big goals.
Image courtesy of Aquinas Athletics
The Saint 