Norton Golf Team

Over my four years at Norton High School there was only one sport I ended up playing because I never ended up playing basketball due to injuries. Now, I had been golfing since I was about 8 but I missed tryouts for the team my freshman year, which was probably a good thing because I wasn't that good at that point. However, not being able to try out made me work that much harder to make sure I made the team the next year. Over the summer before my sophmore year, I golfed more than I ever had. When I arrived at tryouts at the end of the summer, I was ready to prove to everyone that I was good enough to be on the team. One of the benefits to playing for the Norton golf team was that we got to play on the TPC at Boston (eventhough it was in Norton) which is the nicest course in the area. I was the second youngest kid at tryouts, the youngest being my friend Adam who was a freshman and I knew I had to show a lot to them to have them be impressed and surprisingly I did. I played better than I ever have and they were about as amazed as I was. I ended up making making the team, but unfortunately not as a starter. The season started and I soon found out that the team wasn't looking very good. We had only won about 1 match the year before so our expectations going into the year. As the year went on however, I soon showed my value to the team and finished the year playing in the number 6 spot in the order. We only ended up winning 2 matches and my personal record wasn't very good but the experience was very valuable because I was projected to be the number 2 golfer on the team the next year and the co captain in my second year. Over the summer I knew I'd have to improve a lot to even think about competing with some of the people I was supposed to be facing. When the season began again, I knew we were in for another rough year. We had the youngest team in the league and we were facing some of the best competition in the area. Our entire team knew this and we went out and just had a good time the entire year and eventhough we only won 2 matches again it was still fun. I played well most of the year but was hindered by a couple of nagging injuries which costed me a few matches but I was excited to find out I was going to be the captain and the number one player next year. The only problem with this was that we lost 6 of our 8 starters which crippled our lineup and we had a new coach who hadn't coached any teams before this. As always it was looking like another tough season. As usual again, it didn't disappoint. I started out struggling again and the team followed suit. We had one senior, three juniors and 8 underclassmen who switched in and out. It was another interesting and fun year to say the least. We ended up winning 4 matches which combined our previous two year's win totals and despite my struggles, I made the State Championships. Unfortunately, the year didn't end that well as I struggled during states due to a partially seperated shoulder I had gotten from frisbee a couple weeks before. At least I got out of school for the day to golf. I made a lot of new friends while on the golf team and I was happy to see that they are actually doing very well this year with the addition of a bunch of talented freshman and are looking to make the playoffs.