Caroline McConnell would have been one of the top players on the South Fayette boys golf team this year.
Last year as a freshman she finished tied for third in the WPIAL Class 3A girls individual championships and, because the school didn’t have enough girls to field a team, she played alongside the boys and helped the Lions qualify for the team playoffs.
That won’t happen this year as South Fayette is fielding a girls golf program.
“It’s tremendous because I was the boys JV coach last year and I got to see Caroline play when she was playing with the boys team,” South Fayette girls coach Rocky Violi said. “It was good because I got to develop a rapport with her.”
Starting a new program from scratch is never easy, but to have a cog like McConnell, who ended her first year with a fourth-place finish at the PIAA individual finals at Heritage Hills, certainly makes things a lot easier.
“Just getting this started is phenomenal and, obviously, we got the support from the school board and the community,” Violi said. “It’s just been a tremendous turnout so far.”
Having nine players on the team might not seem like a lot, but to have that kind of interest for a fledgling program bodes well for the future. All South Fayette actually needed to compete was five as the top four scores from the five competitors are counted toward the team total in an officially sanctioned match.
Putting a team on the course to compete is an accomplishment on its face. However, it will likely take some time to get the program into postseason contention.
South Fayette plays in the same section with perennial contenders Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon, both of which have earned WPIAL championship trophies. The Panthers, in fact, have won 16 team titles since 1981.
“Obviously we range in skill levels,” Violi said. “But just to see the program and where it can be, I’m just very excited to see where it can go in a couple of years.”
Conversely, the boys golf team took a huge hit when the girls team was formed and McConnell removed. Though the Lions have a state finalist of their own in senior Luke Lestini, it would have made things a lot easier having a 1-2 punch of state finalists at the top of the lineup.
“We have a lot of growing to do because we lost Caroline to the girls team and we lost [another] to graduation and both of them were extremely pivotal to our success last year,” South Fayette boys golf coach Bobby Ruffolo said. “We still feel really solid, but like everybody in the WPIAL knows, you need your back end to be solid, too, and right now we’re a little inconsistent.”
Lestini was expected to lead the team this year, but South Fayette also had a promising showing at WPIAL individual qualifiers a year ago from sophomore James Cavrak. The Lions are also getting key contributions from sophomore Trent D’Alessandro.
“Trent really worked hard and played a lot of matches this summer,” Ruffolo said. “But we need a couple of kids to step up and take that role.”
Still, without McConnell in the boys lineup, even more of the onus for the team’s success now falls to Lestini.
“Without a doubt, he’s the leader of our gold team from a performance standpoint, as well as a vocal standpoint,” Ruffolo said. “He wears that burden of having to low every time, but at the same time he welcomes it and appreciates it.”
First Published: August 30, 2019, 10:30 a.m.