The Piedmont High School boys golf team is starting their season with big goals as head coach Marvin Vitatoe heads into his second season leading the Highlanders.
Vitatoe said that the team this year is very young.
“The majority of our team is between juniors and freshmen,” Vitatoe said. “Very few seniors. The bulk of our talent is in the junior class, with River Bloemker and Derek Lee being kind of the 1-2 punch that I look to rely on this season. They seem to be hungry to improve.”
Besides Bloemker and Lee, there are multiple strong players on the team.
“Jackson Van Kleeck has grown his game immensely over the year,” Vitatoe said. “(Also) Henry Pfister and a younger kid I actually give golf lessons to who is getting better every day is Ethan Block.”
Vitatoe said the team is very strong this season.
“The biggest strength of our team is just resilience,” Vitatoe said. “(They) never get down on themselves. It’s just improvement as a whole we need to continue to work at. This is a game that you’re rewarded for just being with it. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it, so just taking everything day to day and making your next day better than your last, leaving the golf course better than we found it is always something we can look to strive upon.”
The team is currently practicing at Lake Chabot Golf Course.
Many members of the team played sports in the offseason, while others continued with golf.
“(Lee) takes pride in playing in a lot of high level junior golf tournaments all over the state of California, and some national events,” Vitatoe said.
Vitatoe said Bishop O’Dowd is going to be Piedmont’s biggest matchup.
“Bishop O’Dowd is a very solid program, top to bottom,” Vitatoe said. “They have several great golfers who can shoot even par. That’s kind of who we want to topple. That’s the goal for my program, to show them that we can compete too. I don’t wanna go out there and just lay down and get beat by them all the time.”
Berkeley has a chance of being a tough competitor.
“Last year, (a big competitor) was Berkeley,” Vitatoe said. “I’m not sure what their program is like this year. Really, the team to beat is Bishop O’Dowd. I believe anybody else in our league is playing for second. I do believe that our best game, we can compete with anybody. If we focus on what we need to do to be better every day, we can beat anybody.”
Vitatoe said the team has a few different goals.
“My goal every year is to not only be better than we were last year, but also to bring home a banner,” Vitatoe said. “I’m hyper-competitive. I don’t like to lose. Losing to me, it can always be avoided.”
Vitatoe is excited about the amount of potential this year’s team has.
“I have a squad that has the ability to play with anybody. It doesn’t matter, private schools, public schools, prep schools,” Vitatoe said. “I believe that I do have the horses to race this year. I have a stud in (Lee), I have leadership, and I have hunger. There are kids on my team who may not be at the top of their skills right now, but if they approach every day and try to win the day, they can compete with anybody. It’s just the potential to be great, so if we can match our effort with that potential, we could be very dangerous.”