After a successful season last year, the girls golf team now meets an obstacle in this season. Former golf coach, Mark Watts, has chosen to retire from both coaching and teaching positions in August. Taking his place as coach is instructor Kelli Karlin.

“I have been Mr. Watts’s assistant for boys golf in the past years,” Karlin said. “He used to ask me if I was interested in taking over if he ever decided to retire. And when he retired, I decided that I really wanted to coach golf. ”

Karlin said there might be some difficulty during this season due to the number of inexperienced players.

“A lot of the newbies have never picked up a club before this summer and some before the first practice,” Karlin said. “But I really believe in them.”

With only three varsity players competing, girls won’t be able to compete as a team, Karlin said.

“We have three experienced players returning and the rest of the team are made of newbies, mainly freshmen,” Karlin said. “There will probably be only three players on varsity for the first few tournaments at least until some of the newbies work hard to fill the empty spots on varsity. Because of that, we will not be able to compete as a team for those tournaments, because four players are needed to compose a team.”

Karlin said she loves golf and will enjoy coaching the sport.

“It’s just a passion of mine and the coaching position is perfect for me,” Karlin said. “One reason I really like being able to coach golf is because I get the chance to give the ladies skills to learn how to play a lifelong sport. Golf is a sport that you can play for the rest of your life.”

16nvuong@usd489.com