Golf Team Second In Own Tourney

By Nicky Romero
For the Mountain Mail

SOCORRO -- The Socorro boys golf team is excited and eager to show off their golfing skills this season.
“We have very high expectations for our boys golf team this year,” Socorro coach Russ Moore said.
The Warriors opened the season with a first-place showing at the Belen Invitational on March 8, but they did not qualify for a leg for state.
“I believe we're in the top four teams in the state,” Moore said. “The teams to beat are Lovington and St. Michael's They both tied for the team title and St. Michael's won in the playoff last year for the state title. Hope Christian School rose to the top last year and actually came out third.”
In Belen last week, despite playing in poor weather, the team won the tournament.
“But we weren't quite as successful as we wanted to be,” Moore said. “We haven't started our goal of picking up legs for the state tournament. We did play reasonably well, but not as good as we like.”
“We have a very competitive golf team led by a good group of seniors. Our leading senior is Ryan Romero who has been on the team for five years. He was on the state championship team in 2006. We will have senior Randall Romero who has been affiliated with the team for the last three years earning varsity letters. Joe Carilli, Eric Mitchusson, and Willie Lucero are the other seniors who will help lead our team.”
“Depth doesn't stop there. I expect big things out of our 9th grader Willie Schaffer. He played as an eighth grader last year and earned his varsity letter. He will probably be challenging Ryan Romero for that number one spot. Willie has done a great job and worked hard on his game the last couple of years. He's improved tremendously. In fact, Willie will be our number one man going down to T or C. He won our last qualifier.”
“We have a good group of juniors too. We have Nathan Vega and Zane Lam. We expect big things from Zane this year. Zane qualified for the tournament in T or C, so he has earned his varsity letter this year. We're real proud of Zane for getting into the varsity this year.”
Robert Smith and Raymond Chavez are the sophomores on the team.
Socorro also traveled to Hot Springs on March 23rd for the Hot Springs Invitational. The team outshot Cobre and Hot Springs for first place, but again did not qualify for a leg for state.
Moore said, “We need to work harder on our short game, putting and chipping.”

Pictured: The Socorro boys golf team. Front row left to right: Dmitri Valles, Tyler Lam, Zane Lam, Randall Romero, John Carilli, Ray Chavez, Bubba Anaya, Eric Mitchusson, Head Coach Russ Moore. Back row: Assistant Coach Miguel Griego, Nathan Vega, Robert Smith, Willie Lucero, Ryan Romero, Joe Carilli, Raul Contreras, Jonathan Hade, Willie Schaffer, Bryan Melanson, Assistant Coach Dennis Walsh. Not pictured: Will Benson, Alq Fuierer, and Tye Trujillo.

Photo by John Severance

Golf Team Second In Own Tourney