By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The best is yet to come for Brownsville Veterans Memorial this golf season.
The Chargers and Lady Chargers enter the coming week’s Region IV-5A Tournament in San Antonio with that feeling in mind.
Brownsville Veterans is sending its District 32-5A champion boys and girls golf squads to regional competition with high hopes of qualifying for the UIL state tournament for the first time as an individual or a team.
The regional tournament will be played at San Antonio’s Golf Club of Texas. The girls tournament is Monday and Tuesday and the boys play Wednesday and Thursday.
The top three teams advance to state along with the top three individual players who are not members of a state-qualifying team.
“We just love the sport, and that’s what keeps us going,” said Julie Lucio, a junior for the Lady Chargers who is the top-rated female golfer in the Rio Grande Valley this school year with a 70.33 stroke average. “This is my first year with this team and I just love it. We’ve been working our tails off the whole (school) year for this.”
Lucio is a transfer from Hanna and she advanced to the Class 6A state tournament individually a year ago. Now she has another chance to return to state in Class 5A individually or maybe even go with her team this time. Either way, it would be a first for the school.
Another top-ranked golfer for the Lady Chargers is freshman Vanessa Campos, who was the runner-up individual medalist at district behind Lucio. Lucio repeated as a district individual medalist on April 11 with a two-round total of 2-under-par 142. Campos shot 72-73 — 145 at district and boasts a 75.33 stroke average, which is tied for fourth-best in the Valley.
“We put a great (team) score out there (in winning district by 113 strokes), and I personally know we can do better,” Campos said. “We’re striving to make each other better and I feel we’ll definitely have a good end to our season.
“Winning so handily at district gives us confidence for regionals,” Campos added. “But we know we still have to keep working hard and improving so we can reach our goal (of going to state).”
Two girls teams advanced out of the 32-5A tournament to go to regionals. The runner-up girls squad at district was Lopez.
Besides Campos and Lucio, other members of the Lady Chargers squad going to San Antonio are Fahtima Avila, Cristina Pullen and Cecilia Garza. The Lady Chargers have won all eight of their tournaments this season, including district.
This year marked the first time for the Brownsville Veterans boys and girls golfers to win district in the same season. Each squad has advanced to the regional tournament multiple times.
The Chargers have won five of their eight tournaments this season, also including district, and are led by seniors Kevin Gomez and Michael Valle with stroke averages of 79.07 and 82.60, respectively. Other members of the Brownsville Veterans boys team going to regionals are Ryan Ruiz, Jorge Santillana and Daniel Yznaga.
While Lucio has been the individual medalist in all eight of her tournaments, Gomez, coming off a successful basketball season, has won two tournaments individually and finished as the runner-up twice.
“Having our boys team win district (by a 77-stroke margin over second-place Edcouch-Elsa) gives us a lot of confidence going to regionals and we hope we can make it to state,” Gomez said. “We’re going to try as hard as we can to make it there.
“We just have to play our game and not get too crazy out there — keep getting pars and no bogeys or doubles or triples,” he added. “We have to try and try and not give up.”
Jose Luis Zarate, who is assisted by Ron Lopez, has been the Brownsville Veterans golf coach since the school opened in 2010. Prior to that he was the golf coach at Rivera. He is a 1986 Pace graduate who was a kicker on the University of Houston football team before obtaining his college degree.
“Winning district puts us in a position to try to make some history for our school over there in San Antonio,” said Zarate, who coached the Porter Cowboys to the 5A state soccer title in 2006. “Both the boys and the girls, we’re going to keep working hard and try to do as well as we can.
“We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing and see how it all goes,” Zarate added. “I’m very proud of both of our squads. Getting to state has been the goal all season long.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess