It’s a special season for Allentown High School’s golf team and for Doug Hunt, one of the team’s coaches with Joe Monticello.
Along with getting off to a 6-0 start coming into this week, the team’s best start since the 2008 state championship season, the Redbirds are also celebrating Hunt’s induction on April 14 into the NJSIAA Athletic Hall of Fame at the Pines Manor in Edison. He’s the ninth golf coach to be inducted.
“I couldn’t be happier for him,” said senior Mike Reed, who shot a 43 on April 10 to help Allentown get its best victory thus far this season, 218-224 over Notre Dame High School. “I’ve had many coaches in different sports and he’s one of the best. It’s his love of the game and the kids. He wants what’s best for everyone.”
“This has been overdue. He is admired by all,” said Monticello, who has coached the team with Hunt for the last six years. “Anytime students come back, he is the first person they want to talk to. He’s also a physical education teacher at Allentown who is one of the most respected teachers, and [he is] respected by CVC (Colonial Valley Conference) coaches. It’s very deserving.”
Hunt, who has been a golf coach at Allentown for 30 years at the Cream Ridge home course, coached during two unbeaten regular seasons before there was a state tournament and for the team that finished seventh in the 2008 NJSIAA Meet of Champions (MOC).
“Just to get nominated is a reflection of the kids,” said Hunt of the honor.
He also coached cross-country with Monticello before retiring after many years in 2011. He said he is considering stepping away from golf, too, at the end of this season.
Allentown’s eight-man lineup this year includes six seniors, but one of the top players is sophomore Mark Bernet.
“I’ve had great groups of kids to work with, and Cream Ridge always has been so supportive of us,” Hunt said. “And Joe Monticello has been such a great coach with me for the last few years with his great knowledge of the game. “
The key to success for a high school golfer, Hunt said, “is about being an athlete, staying within yourself and controlling your emotions.”
He has commended this year’s group as one of the best for its attitude on and off the course, as well as to the cohesion that was helped late last month by the team’s first-ever trip to Ocean City, Md., to work on its game.
“It was a great trip and we played well,” Hunt said. “The kids saw what they had to work on.” “That was a real plus; I saw them come together and get in the right frame of mind,” Monticello said.
Players also volunteered for charitable work, such as bagging lunches for people in a homeless shelter in Trenton.
“It’s a great group,” Hunt said, as players are looking to organize pasta dinners for team unity. “I never had a nicer group of kids who are very nice, enjoy the game and play it right.”
The Redbirds have a big week scheduled with four matches in four days. They play at Wall High School on April 15, followed by home matches against perennial CVC Valley Division winner and No. 5 stateranked Hopewell Valley Central High School on April 16, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South on April 17 and Princeton High School on April 18.
“We’ll learn a lot about this team this week,” Monticello said.
This year’s team was determined to get off to a better start than in recent years, when it won its first five matches and then would lose. This time, it easily picked up victory No. 6 over Bordentown Regional High School, 164-193, at Cream Ridge, as Bernet shot a 38, while Reed shot a 40 and senior Ryan Shaw shot a 41. Fellow seniors Zach Thomas and Jake Lewis had 45s, and Tyler Gravatt shot a 48.
Thomas led the way in the victory over Notre Dame with his best round thus far, a nine-under-par 37, followed by Shaw (42), Reed (43), Bernet (47), Gravatt (48) and Lewis (48). Junior Andrew Pignataro and senior Jake Failla are also part of the eight-man rotation.
Reed has come back strongly after missing much of the preseason recovering from his fourth surgery on his right knee, another corrective procedure from an ongoing problem rooted in an injury suffered when he played hockey in middle school.
“Every day it’s getting better, but I’ve had good days and bad days,” Reed said. “Lately, I’ve had (mostly) good days, but I try not to make it a big excuse. I know I have to be there for my team and I can’t complain with the way I’ve been playing.”
Reed relies on his fairway game, while Shaw lowers his scores on the greens. Thomas, whose family relocated back to Allentown from Michigan, has shown improving accuracy on his powerful drives and also has been efficient on the greens. Hunt said Gravatt “also has been coming along.”
“It’s all coming together,” Reed said. “We do what we have to do in practice during the offseason, and our mental game is better. This year we’re expecting big things after going 10-6 last year, but that record didn’t show what this group is capable of. Every match, we’ve lowered our team score. It would be good this year to take the division, but the state tournament is the big thing.”
“We have a number of seniors, and as far as they’re concerned, they can hit the ball as well as anybody, and now it comes down to course management,” Monticello said. “It’s a matter of minimizing mistakes, of picking their battles, and how they go forward from there. They’re confident and feel comfortable and feel they’re as good as anybody.
When they play their game, they can play with anybody.”
While the seniors came into the season experienced off last season, and Shaw and Reed playing on Juniors, Bernet has been the pleasant addition, shooting 39s against Ewing High School at Mountain View and Lawrence High School at Cream Ridge.
The team is looking for satisfaction in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group I sectionals, where it narrowly missed reaching the MOC last season. With the top two teams qualifying, Allentown finished tied for second with Hopewell Valley, but lost in a playoff. Middle Township High School finished first.
“If they don’t get a spot in states, they’ll be very disappointed,” Monticello said.
With an experienced and improved lineup, the seniors are determined to end their high school careers at the MOC.