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What's this?By Mark Lourenzo
Beacon Correspondent
The Humboldt-Del Norte Conference boys golf wrapped up their regular season back on April 21, so it's on to the postseason for a very select group of high school participants. Fortuna's Brandon Head is one of those individuals that made the short list, and in doing so has earned H-DN All-League honors and will compete in the upcoming North Coast Section qualifier on May 5 in Petaluma. The last couple of weeks of the regular season had a measure of drama as several players were within striking distance of the final postseason spots.
The regular season finale at Benbow proved to be a challenging course for most of the high school competitors. Still coming into shape after a long winter, the course was a little rough and the greens were heavily sanded to make up for the seasonal rains. Even in the best of conditions, Benbow is a tight course where you need to stay in the fairway and keep out of the rough. Several holes into the event, most of the players commented that they were not having the best of days. Head was no exception as he chipped in at the 9th hole, "Well, not really great, I carded a four on the first four holes. Only problem was two were par
The truth was that Head was having as good of a day as could be expected and would finish with a score of 81, claiming the final spot in the postseason. The top two teams in the H-DN make the postseason as do the top three individuals not on the top two teams. How close were the standings? Head would end up finishing 7th in the county, one shot from making 6th and one shot from dropping to 8th place. A strong finish by Head in the final two events of the season made the difference as he carded his best score of the year: a 78, at Eureka Municipal, followed by his 81 at Benbow.
Fortuna High golf coach, Glen Senestraro was satisified with the season results, putting together a rather young team this year. The Huskies attained the goals they had set for themselves in the beginnng. "Most all the golfers are making progress, as a team we finished 5th (H-DN standings) and that was exactly our goal for the season,” stated Senestraro after the final tallies. "We only had two seniors on the team, more than half of the golfers are sophomores and freshman, so overall it was a successful year,” he added.
One of those young golfers that had a pretty good year was freshman Cody Curteman. He emerged as Fortuna High's No. 2 golfer and ended the season 15th in the H-DN standings. His team best score of 77 at Benbow in the final event of the season showed the progress he had made. Marcus Torres, Kyle Roberts, Jon Debets and Connor Black rounded out the rest of the team making the Benbow event.
On the Ferndale side of the river, the Wildcats had a reasonable amount of success. The Wildcats No. 1 golfer for the season was Jon Losa. Losa was having a fine year and had climbed as high as 12th in the standings a few weeks back. He was lost to eligiblity issues before the Benbow finale and the team had to finish without him. Losa's best score of the year was a 83 at Willow Creek and he followed that with a 85 at the Baywood event. Garrett Stephens assumed the reins as team leader for the final event of the season at Benbow. His steady improvement throughout the season showed when he broke past the century mark halfway through the schedule and posted a 92 in the season finale, his best score of the year.
Fortuna's Brandon Head will be making the trip down to Petaluma for the NCS qualifier, North of the Bay Tournament on May 5. A good showing could vault him into the NCS Tournament of Champions one week later. On May 17, the Fortuna High team will be hosting their end of the season fundraiser at Redwood Empire. More on that at a later date.
