Hitting the ball into the hole, the new year of the girls golf team has opened up into an optimistic season. Ever since a new coach joined the team, everyone has begun to develop into a family, and they’re now able to rely on one another, reminiscent of how they did in the past. This season feels as though every moment spent with each other is a hole-in-one.

Coach Marcelo Menchaca joined the team just this August, right before school started. He hasn’t been involved in the team for a while, but his appearance has made the team more positive; he’s been much more of a help, and even a friend to the girls, making sure he’s there for them whenever they need him.

“My players were telling me that their current head coach, at the time, had quit,” Menchaca said. “They were going into almost the summer with no head coach. So I would hate to do this to you know, a couple of girls. I was like, not having a head coach, the uncertainty of it.”

Whenever Coach Menchaca had joined, he had one exact goal in his mind: to coach them like he would his own daughters.

“I just try to be the big thing, which is that I’m trying to be a coach that my daughters will have one day,” Menchaca said. “ So I’m coaching these girls like my daughters are having coaches teach them soccer or lacrosse.”

Senior Marissa Workoetter, the current captain, developed the title in her Sophomore year; Instead of being welcomed with open arms, it wasn’t something that came so easily moving into the new team– in fact, it was the exact opposite.

“I joined my freshman year and I had been playing three years before that, and then I became captain my sophomore year,” Workoetter said, “I was the youngest captain ever, and I think some people definitely weren’t pleased because there were a couple of seniors on the team and they made a little sophomore captain, but I enjoyed it, nonetheless.”

Ever since COVID began, It began to relieve the stress off of Workoetter’s shoulders, making the girls more available to work on developing themselves and the team. The group of girls now go on team bonding activities after competitions; The girls never used to never be able to have fun, but thankfully things have changed for the better.

“I feel like the new coach has helped everyone grow,” Workoetter said, “The team itself is more together, more loving as that has also changed, and it feels more like a family.”