Benicia High boys, girls ready to start
Bob Hall expected to coach both the boys, girls squads
No sport or activity is 100 percent shielded from COVID-19 transmission, but golf is as safe as they come.
“It should be really easy to maintain protocols,” said Benicia High’s boys and girls coach Bob Hall. “Kids will have to wear masks at all times, they’ll will have to keep at appropriate distances, there won’t be any handshakes and there will be no sharing of balls and equipment.”
Golf courses were closed down for a time last year but all Bay Area courses opened up on May 4, including Blue Rock Springs. That will serve as the Panthers’ home course as high schools appear close to restarting some purple-tier sports in February. California’s stay-at-home order was lifted on Monday.
No official date for the start of the season is set in stone but the North Coast Section set Feb. 1 as a potential first practice for some of those sports. Benicia athletic director Craig Holden said that the first practice date for his school could be around Feb. 8.
Hall said he has about five or six of his core boys back and about three or four girls return from last season. Some of the top boys expect to be seniors Aiden Ross and James McNally and sophomores Matthew Selman and Noah Page. Some of the top girls expect to be sophomores Haley Boldt, Kate Bjornstad and Sophie Mandal.
Ross, 17, has been playing golf for about eight years, the last three with the Panthers.
“I was surprised when I heard they were going to bring golf back considering how the school district has dealt with the coronavirus in the past,” Ross said. “I am really looking forward to it
though. It should be a lot of fun.”
The boys 2020 season was shuttered last March when the California Interscholastic Federation closed down all spring sports. Ross said his low score for that abbreviated season was probably in the mid-to-low 40s for a nine-hole course. He said his personal best is 40 for nine holes and 82 for an 18-hole course, which happened at Chardonnay Golf Club in American Canyon.
Ross has a part-time job at Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo and says he plays the courses in Vacaville and Fairfield frequently. He is looking forward to seeing his teammates again.
“For me, my goal is to have a normal season,” he said. “I’m not necessarily trying to get a (golf) scholarship or anything.”
Ross said he plans to go to Chico State and major in construction management. He said he plans to try out for the men’s golf team there.
Similar to Ross, Boldt works part-time at a golf course as well. The sophomore works at Vinters Golf Club in Yountville where her dad is the golf pro. Boldt said she often plays about once a week.
The 16-year-old is also excited about the season, whenever that may begin.
“As soon as I found out, I told all of the other girls about it,” she said. “We’re all really happy. We were all going out about once a week (during the fall) at Blue Rock before it got too dark.”
As a freshman Boldt said her scores weren’t very good but she’s hoping that a year of improvement will pay off. Boldt said her personal-best score over nine holes is 39, which she shot at Vinters.
“I just want to be more consistent with my fairway shots,” Boldt said about her goals for the upcoming season. “A lot of times, I’m all over the place.”
Hall does not have an assistant coach. He is hoping that boys and girls matches can be on different days to accommodate everyone. Holden said there is a possibility that the two seasons could be staggered as well.
Holden said the athletic directors and principals in the Diablo Athletic League are expected to meet over Zoom to discuss more details on the purple-tier sports. The DAL also plans to run track and field, tennis and swimming for both boys and girls.
Holden said plenty of ideas are being presented for road matches as well.
“That will be one of the guidelines set in place before we start,” he said. “For the most part, parents will probably be driving their kids. The days of taking a 57-passenger bus are over.”
Holden said the Benicia Unified School District has been informed of the school’s plans to move forward with some sports in February.
“The ultimate goal is to bring kids back. It’s not about section or state championships,” he said. “We’re trying to bring kids back and participating in sports to the best of our abilities. But we want to do it safely.”
The NCS said there will be no section, regional or state playoffs for its schools this school year.
Holden was informed that he’ll need a head cross country coach as well as head boys and girls tennis coaches for those February sports. He’s also looking for possible assistant coaches for some of the aforementioned sports. For more information, email him at cholden@beniciaunified.org.