LA FERIA — The La Feria Lions golf teams are at it again.
This season, the golf program took another step in the right direction as both the boys and girls teams qualified for the Region IV-4A Tournament, which gets underway today at the Lozana Golf Center in Corpus Christi and concludes on Tuesday.
Both teams qualified after finishing second at the District 32-4A tournament earlier this month.
On the boys side, Raymondville took first place while Port Isabel qualified as the third place team.
However the tournament wasn’t with out its share of drama.
The boy’s team needed a sudden death 19th hole against Port Isabel to solidify their spot.
“These boys went out ‘with the pressure on them’ and stepped it up and really came through when it counted,” said La Feria golf coach David Briones.
When freshman Michael Mireles turned in his scorecard it added up to a score of 393. Good enough for the team to secure second place, but it wasn’t what it seemed.
In fact, after celebrating for a bit, Briones found out that Mireles’ scorecard was incorrectly added up and that their actual score was 404, tying them with PI.
And it was up to Briones to break the bad news to the team
“At first they thought it was an April Fools joke,” he said. “But after the recalculation we ended up with the tie with Port Isabel and that’s when we called the UIL to see how the playoff was done.”
“The feeling was like dropping a carton of eggs,” described junior Carlos Garcia.
Nevertheless, the team was able to defeat the Port Isabel and book their first regional tournament trip in two years.
“If feels great to make it regionals, especially after a playoff round,” said senior Armando Alvarado. “Beating the other in a close game and just coming out with the win is a great feeling.
“We are a team so we work as a team and in practice we do work hard I’m very impressed with the way these freshman played and I’m glad that they are coming up with us as a team. We either win as a team or lose as a team. Luckily, this time we won.”
On the girls side, it might not have had the dramatics of a sudden death playoff, but it didn’t make it any less meaningful.
The Lionettes placed second in the district tournament, just behind first place Zapata and ahead of third place Hidalgo.
Meanwhile, junior Isabel Prado regained her district champion crown after losing it last year.
“I was really happy that I won the title back this year because after I didn’t win it last year, I was a little upset,” Prado said.
The junior has had to step up in the process and become a leader for a team that’s eager to take in the atmosphere of a regional tournament.
“I feel like it’s a great opportunity because I know I’m a sophomore but as long as we practice practice practice, I know we will only get better,” said sophomore Kay Ibarra.
And teammate Gabriela Gomez agrees.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to go and compete because the girls at regionals are very good,’ said Gomez. “Even if we come up short its ok, because its a good practice to go back again next year.”