DANVERS — The St. John’s Prep golf team is primed for a big season with hopes of regaining the state championship it fell short of in 2022. The Eagles have finalized their roster after a week of tryouts.
“Last season was solid. We had 10 wins and four losses,” coach Brian Jasiak said. “We qualified for the North Sectionals. A lot of teams competed, but we fell just shy of winning the state championship a year removed from us winning the state championship.”
Although the Eagles fell short of their ultimate goal, Jasiak believes the loss can be a good thing for a team returning many of its players.
“It was a nice wakeup call and experience,” he said. “We were hopeful of repeating, but even in major sports, that’s not always the case. The team is now very hungry to get back to the top.”
After tryouts, Jasiak finalized his roster. It consists of 10 players – three of whom are freshmen.
“We have three freshman players making the team which is very rare for the varsity level at St. John’s Prep,” Jasiak said. “We have six returners from last season. Alex Jackson, who was the second-best player at tryouts, is on the team after transferring last year to focus on golf in Florida. He’s with us now and he’s improved dramatically.”
At tryouts, Jasiak was amazed to see that all of his varsity players – at one point or another – shot under 80.
“Most of them were always under 80, but it was really fun to see,” Jasiak said. “It just makes me very excited for the season. On any given day, it’ll be interesting to see who will be in the top four to six. We’ll have a lot of rotation. Typically, you have a clear top four to five, but literally everyone on this team is good and has a lot of potential.”
Not only did they all shoot under 80, but other highlights included Dominic Meyers hitting a hole-in-one. It was his third in total.
Last year, Terry Manning was a co-captain. Now, he’s the team’s sole captain and, according to Jasiak, a “fantastic” leader.
“He has been a four-year varsity player, and watching him over the four years and seeing how he’s embraced his role as a leader has been amazing,” Jasiak said. “He has great ability but his way to keep the team together is great. Last year in a match, Terry was four to five shots better than anyone and we lost a close match. On the bus ride back, he was there encouraging the team despite the result. I’m really excited to see him lead again.”
Team potential is high, according to Jasiak. He’s not only excited to see his players compete against other schools, but between themselves, too.
“We have a tough schedule this year. Our conference is a beast, but our out-of-conference schedule is tough,” Jasiak said. “We’re playing Winchester twice, which is always a top school in the state. We’ll play Weston, which won the Division 3 title last year, in addition to playing Gloucester, too. We want these hard games to prepare us for later in the season.”
“I’m looking forward to the internal competition between the kids and how they respond and compete with each other,” Jasiak said.
