Blue Devils turn their focus on improvement
Staff Photo, Vincent Vala
Culpeper coach Shirley Gray, right, instructs Brad Johnson during a recent meet. Gray isn’t measuring his Culpeper team with wins and losses this year.
Advertisement
Text size: small | medium | large
Mark O’Connell
Published: August 19, 2008
Legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi is often quoted as saying, “Winning isn’t every thing. It’s the only thing.”
His famous saying is best applied to professional sports where winning is money.
If it were applied to high school sports, then this year’s Culpeper golf team would have little hope of pleasing such an icon as Lombardi.
With only two players returning from last year’s team of nine, long-time Head Coach Shirley Gray realizes that this year’s focus goes beyond winning and losing.
“I don’t expect us to win many matches this season,” he said. “But I don’t put as much importance on winning and losing as I used to. I look at how I can help develop the players to be good citizens and how they carry themselves.”
Only Tommy Jocz, a senior, returns from last year’s varsity team. He is easily the most experienced golfer on the team. The other returning player is Trevor Bates, but the junior was on last year’s B squad and hasn’t played yet in the Blue Devils early tournaments.
Shane Griffin, a sophomore, was expected to return to the team but he was lost to the season to a broken arm.
Lost to graduation was standout Chad Mozingo, plus contributors Jake Maloy, Miles Albritton, Justin Carlson and Thomas Byberg.
Mozingo was the team’s linchpin and lone representative at both the Northwest Region and Group AAA state tournaments a year ago.
So far this season the Blue Devils have been led by Jocz, who shot a 39 over nine holes at the Country Club of Culpeper Monday against Eastern View, and Derek Orshoski, who led the team in the season opener at Loudoun Valley and was second on the team with a 44 against Eastern View.
Mark O’Connell can be reached at .
Blue Devils Schedule
Date Opponent Time
Aug. 11 at Loudoun Valley 9 a.m.
Aug. 13 at Spotswood 9 p.m.
Aug. 18 at Eastern View 9 a.m.
Aug. 26 Liberty TBA
Aug. 28 Orange 4 p.m.
Sept. 2 at Orange 4 p.m.
Sept. 4 at Loudoun Valley 4:30
Sept. 8 Stonewall Jackson TBA
Sept. 13 District round robin TBA
Sept.17 at Osbourn TBA
Sept. 26 at Woodberry Forest 1:30
Sept. 29 District Tournament 9 a.m.
Post a Comment
The commenting period has ended or commenting has been deactivated for this article.
Can't find what you're looking for? Try our quick search:
