This October, the Varsity Boys Golf Team won fourth place at the State championships, which was an unprecedented achievement for Vernon Hills. However, it wasn’t an easy road to state.

“If you would have told us that we were going to get fourth place, I would have said there’s no way,” said varsity team member Tanner Fulton (12).

After losing half of the players on the varsity golf team last season in graduating seniors, many had doubts about the relatively young team this season.

“I remember the seniors telling me ‘Oh you guys aren’t going be as good next year,’ and we used it as motivation. We ended up having a better finish at state [than the previous year],” said varsity team member Brian Favia (10).

The first stop on their road to state was the regional tournament at Richmond Burton, where they placed first. This win gave them the opportunity to play in the sectional tournament, where they played teams like St. Francis and Geneseo.

Here, the team hit a rough patch. In order to move on as a team, they needed to place third or higher after combining their top four scores. Vernon Hills tied with Kaneland High School for third place, putting the top fifth scorer Sujay Voleti (9) in a position to have a lower score than the Knight’s fifth scorer. Luckily Voleti’s score was lower and the team was able to move on to the State Championship.

“It was a lot of pressure,” Voleti said. “In high school, golf is more of a team atmosphere. With all your teammates who play well and play on the line, you really feel that they deserve this as a team. Just to put the team through [to state] felt good.”

Moving on to the state championship, the team worked hard to place in the competition. The team ended up fourth out of 12 teams, which was a massive improvement from  last year. They were only one point away from placing third. With steady improvement like this, the team has a very bright future ahead of them.

“We need to be able to play better in tough weather conditions,” varsity coach Shawn Healey said. “Every year when we get to October it starts getting cold, really windy, and we usually have to deal with some rain. That’s the kind of weather you have to deal with to be successful and get to state.”
The team plans to continue strengthening their playing ability in weather that can make golf difficult. They hope to continue to improve for next year’s state tournament and hopefully bring home a trophy.